Category: Philosophy

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck on embracing multiple models of psychology

image of footbridge through trees
Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, San Jose, CA

“So science seeks, as far as it might, to penetrate the mystery of the world. And ever so gradually scientists are beginning to become comfortable embracing multiple models. Physicists are no longer disheartened to look at light as both a particle and a wave. As for psychology, models abound: the biological, the psychological, the psychobiological, the sociological, the sociobiological, the Freudian, the rational-emotive, the behavioral, the existential, and so on.

“And while science needs those innovators who will champion a single new model as the most advanced understanding, the patient who seeks to be understood as wholly as possible would be well advised to seek a therapist capable of approaching the mystery of the human soul from all angles.”

— from People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil by M. Scott Peck, M.D.

Having and Not Having Arise Together

TWO

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Therefore having and not having arise together;
Difficult and easy complement each other;
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest up on each other;
Voice and sound harmonize each other;
Front and back follow each other.

Therefore the wise go about doing nothing, teaching no-talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.

Therefore it lasts forever.

—from the Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu. Translation by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.