Perhaps because of the influence of counseling , perhaps because of the influence of humanistic psychology, there are many people who believe that psychologists are basically characterized by being a kind of mystic.

Not the kind of mystics so alienated that it is impossible to identify with them, but the kind of spiritual gurus who act as an inspiring mirror for others. People who, having reached a very high degree of understanding about the human mind, are able to adapt their ideas to make room for and connect with any alien way of thinking .

In other words, it has come to be assumed that the psychologist is the one who transforms his own philosophy of life into a very simple principle: always empathize with others, without giving more importance to one’s own ideas than to those of the other .

This idea, of course, is based on an exaggeration of the degree of skills that psychologists acquire throughout their career; after all, they are flesh and blood people. However, my opinion is that this idea is not only unwise, but also harmful and is simply used to try to silence certain ideas and opinions.

Political correctness in psychologists

It is very common to hear phrases like “it seems like a lie that you are a psychologist”. The alarming thing about this is not that it is common to get angry or reproach a person dedicated to this profession, but that, in most cases, this kind of complaint does not occur when a psychologist expresses ignorance about a subject that he/she should master, but when he/she behaves in a way that he/she does not like and that is considered as an attack on the opinion of others .

For example, if a psychologist has very clear ideas about a controversial subject and expresses his or her opinion in an assertive manner, he or she may be criticized for being tactless in giving an unambiguous point of view and very committed to a way of seeing things.

This does not happen with almost any other profession: doctors, engineers or carpenters can have a very established philosophy of life and talk about their ideas without major concerns, but the psychologist seems to be obliged to speak for everyone, keeping a very low and discreet profile . Political correctness is assumed as something that should emanate naturally from his profession, and it has been reached the point where it must be assumed, for example, that all currents of psychology are equally valid because they reflect different ways of thinking.

Marketing with empathy

But psychologists do not engage in renting out their way of thinking to constantly take in the views of others so that empathy can be created.

First of all, a psychologist is defined by what he does in his professional, not personal, life. Just because a psychologist does not have to confront a patient’s ideas, for example, does not mean that he cannot express opinions that are diametrically opposed to those of someone else in any other situation.

This, which seems obvious, is often overlooked because of the influence of two elements: relativism and constructivism taken to the extreme.

The belief of “anything goes”

From radical relativism, especially in its aspect of cultural relativism, it is assumed that there are no attitudes and thoughts more valid than others . This means that psychologists should not strive to find regularities in the way people think and act, since each individual is a world; instead, they should develop a special sensitivity to “connect” with the mind of the other person at a given time and place, to help that person get closer to a certain goal.

In this view of psychology, certain theories about behaviour are not considered to be more valid than others because they have been empirically contrasted, and therefore psychologists do not have the added value of knowing better the mental processes of people in general .

Thus, the only thing they are valuable for is their “sensitivity”, the ease with which they connect with systems of meanings created from scratch by other people (that’s where constructivism comes in). And this sensitivity, if it is not expressed in all facets of the psychologist’s life, cannot be authentic.

Psychology is knowledge

The idea that psychology is basically the implementation of an almost artistic sensibility is totally contrary to the notion of psychology as a science.

What defines psychologists is not their ability to establish therapeutic connections with other people; this is only one of the characteristics of a certain class of psychologists: those who intervene on specific persons and groups of persons. Moreover, even during therapy the psychologist does not have to assume as true all the contents of the patient’s discourse, and has good reason to believe, for example, that a mystical experience in which a saint appeared has not been real.

What all psychologists have in common is that, in order to do their work, they use scientifically generated knowledge and that, therefore, allows reducing the uncertainty about a subject . Psychologists try to predict to a greater or lesser extent the behaviour of people by taking into account a series of variables, and if they do so, it is because they have information that is more valid than other types of information.

Thus, psychologists do not have to accept, for example, religious fundamentalism or racism simply because they are “ways of thinking” that reflect a mental reality as valid as any other. Complaining because someone with a background in psychology does not accept the “truth about oneself” is meaningless precisely because of that.