Psycho"therapy" and Human Politics # 2: The Rise of Democracy

Another discussion in my series of how psycho"therapy" represents a huge shift in human relationships both between and within people. I will discuss the rise of literacy and the concepts of universal education, the change in the arts in recent centuries, and the enormous changes brought about by the ascendency of the scientific attitude. The rise of secular arts created pathways for individual self-expression by anyone, anywhere that wishes to do so. The goal of science involves describing, explaining, predicting and controlling anything in the natural world that is of interest to anyone, anywhere on the planet or in the universe. Psycho"therapy" is an amalgam of both self-expression and a desire to describe and explain the self and the social relationships within which the self is embedded. The scientific attitude demands that we describe rather than judge when dealing with ourselves and others and that our explanations seperate the natural from the from the supernatural.