Category: General Psychology

General Psychology philosophical psychology Theoretical Psychology

Interview with Prof. Barbara Held

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Prof. Barbara Held, a distinguished clinical and philosophical psychologist. Her lifelong emphasis on critical and clear thinking was profoundly palpable and personal. It showcased not only her academic rigor but also her deep personal commitment to truth. While I encourage you to listen to the interview yourself, here are some of the main topics we covered together: Beyond Postmodernism: Prof. Held challenges postmodernism in psychotherapy, emphasizing the…

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General Psychology Phenomenology

Kundera & the Poetic Imagination

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Milan Kundera’s novel, Life is Elsewhere, contains both a celebration and a critique of poetry (aren’t the best critiques rooted in love?). The main characteristic of poetry, which is the target of his critique, is the force of poetic imagination toward finality. The poet, like a god, doesn’t simply consider a possibility; she creates and proclaims! “Look at what I have created!” What is created presents itself as always having been there, as a fate,…

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General Psychology Phenomenology Psychology in Everyday Life

A Different Kind of Loss

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Having a good conversation about a painful topic is bittersweet. Having a good conversation about loss, for instance, has sweetness mixed with the core bitterness of the topic, and I think the sweetness comes from the truth we discover and the understanding we come to share. Even loss–and our attention to loss–can become a way of connecting with others, a way of discovering and sharing insights. A few days ago, I listened to a recent…

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book review General Psychology Psychology in Everyday Life

Review of ‘The Scout Mindset’ by Julia Galef

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

Recent books in popular psychology, and particularly those about our capacity for judgment and reasoning, don’t paint a flattering picture of our intellectual capacities. They argue that we deceive ourselves, that we become satisfied with a feeling of knowing rather than knowing, that we instrumentalize our capacity for reason to justify what we want (and what we want isn’t itself decided by reason), that we conform unthinkingly to established norms and group opinions. These arguments,…

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Discourse General Psychology philosophy of science

What Is Science? Science versus Scientism

By Davood Gozli | by Davood Gozli

The 2018 volume, On Hijacking Science, edited by Edwin E. Gantt and Richard N. Williams, provides a good starting point in thinking about general questions about science, e.g., What is science? What are the differences, if any, between science and scientism? Why are there tensions between a scientific (scientistic) worldview and those grounded in older cultural traditions, such as religions? In this post I will only draw on three passages taken from the editors’ introductory…

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