Since the advent of psychologists like Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Rogers, researchers have wrestled to explain human conduct. Typically, psychology’s most renowned thinkers have been experts at describing how we behave and offered—with surprising insight—their best assumptions as to the fundamental causes of that behavior. Unfortunately, instead of using science to find the answers to their queries, it’s been intuition, insight, and good old-fashioned guesswork that’s sparked their conclusions. As a result, the actual causes of the human condition have, up to now, remained elusive, and our general conduct no less mysterious.
In the following analysis of human behavior, you will notice that I have intentionally left intuition to the side and instead, applied a method of research that is firmly anchored to the same method of inquiry that all scientific discoveries have been loyal to over the decades: deductive logic. You will, however, not be needing any special degrees, diplomas, or certificates with fancy seals on them to understand what I have to say. All that will be required is a little common sense, a sprinkle of patience, and an open mind.
What are we looking for?
I think that most of us would like to know how to improve our lives, reduce or eliminate conflict, feel more in control of our emotions, and have the wherewithal to shape our own destinies. But are such wishes reasonable? Self-help books that assure their readers that relief is just around the corner, motivational speakers, and general advice about how to successfully live our lives abound and yet, rarely lead to lasting success stories. Why? Because, in general, the self-help community forgets that each one of us is as similar to everyone else as we are different. As a result, one self-help system might secure relief for Doug in Des Moines but not work at all for Meredith in Miami. And what might leave Carlos overwhelmed with doubt, may finally bring Ling the happiness she’d always dreamed of.
A little back story
In the mid-1960s, while finishing my master’s certificate in philosophy, I obtained a degree in clinical psychology at the University of Madrid. There I’d been exposed to all the classical approaches to understanding the human psyche. What I discovered, however, was that with very few exceptions, traditional, mainstream psychology had little to offer as a truly scientific discipline. Indeed, it was all over the place! If something didn’t fit into one researcher’s preset scope of investigation, they would just make something up. Most revelations were unusually clever and insightful, but still just the byproduct of intuition—not science.
In the meantime, when it was finally the moment for me to prepare a doctoral thesis in psychology, I picked a subject that had always intrigued me: Anna Freud’s defense mechanism “projection.” (We’ll get into this in Chapter 3.) My plan was to do an in-depth study of this mechanism, expose its origin, then demonstrate its prevalence as part of the human condition in general. However, I soon discovered that all the mechanisms she had proposed as functioning in the human psyche weren’t mechanisms at all, but rather the “grandchildren” of far more important psychological forces whose discovery depended entirely on a deductive method of analysis.
After receiving my doctorate in 1974, I set my sights on testing and retesting the theory that had, in the meantime, inadvertently emerged. In doing so, I made any number of adjustments as to how my discovery explained our day-to-day lives and psychological well-being in general. Now I feel ready to share my findings and expose this new way of understanding what it means to be psychologically alive. My hope is that by understanding the true causes of human behavior, not only will we all be better equipped to alleviate the psychological distress many of us feel, but definitively understand ourselves and others with far more accuracy.
For a deeper explanation of everything that I am about to discuss, you may consult the website below. In other words, while reading this book, if you find yourself interested in a specific detail concerning how the conclusions I reach are scientifically anchored, or any other pertinent issue, simply consult my website or contact me directly through my website, or read “It’s Not Your Fault.”
