Daily Archive

I’m afraid to publish my blog using my real name when talking about controversial issues in psychology.  I really wish this wasn’t the case, and maybe some day I’ll have the guts to do it.  Frankly, it’s a big risk to state opinions against the mainstream in certain areas of psychology.

Take a look at what happened to Michael Campion, Ph.D., just for being a board member the Illinois Family Institute, a conservative Christian group that espouses conservative viewpoints.  This is not just about the APA here, it’s about society and power associated with the political correctness movement. 

Frank McNeil, who was a city council alderman reported that he told the mayor, “I went to Tim and said, ‘Hey, this guy’s gotta go.’ ”McNeil recalls. “He’s out of touch with the mainstream. He has an absolute right to his conservative views, and we have an absolute right to change reviewers.”  This is absolute discrimination based on political viewpoints, and Dr. Campion was fired from his position of providing evaluations for firefighters who were seeking employment with the Minneapolis Fire Department.  The Illinois Times has a story in which this quote appears.

The field of psychology is so rampant with liberal political beliefs that other psychologists feel completely free to espouse their liberal beliefs in the company of other psychologists, as-if, other psychologists will automatically agree with them.  I remember one professional conference I attended, where all of the psychologists at the table were freely deriding president Bush and talking in glowing terms about liberal politicians.  They seemed completely oblivious to the possibility that anyone sitting at the table might have a different point of view, which I did.  I just kept my mouth shut and marveled at the lack of ‘diversity’ in the field, a field which acts like it champions diversity.  There was rarely a day that passed in graduate school when I did not encounter similar talk from professors, and very often more extreme.  Anyone with a conservative viewpoint was viewed as ‘uneducated’ and frankly stupid.  Worse yet, were those who professed belief in God.

What has always eluded me is, why would anyone enter a helping profession if they do not believe in God?  When you are a shrink, you encounter such great misery on the part of those you treat, and quite frankly, there are better ways to make money.  Sometimes, I think it is just a comfortable outlet for liberal political agendas, and this can sometimes be a draw for folks going into the field. I view my job as promoting the American dream, the ability to live life, have liberty, and pursue happiness without undue distress.  Does this make me biased?  Probably.  But somebody needs to provide a little balance to a completely unabalanced field.