Subject Matter #20: American Psychology
Hi everyone, it's Toby, back with your favorite blog "Subpixel Space." I've got a new post for you, which is mostly a bunch of questions about psychology that I'd like to answer.
Here is "Connecting the Dots on American Psychology."
(As I write this, I notice that a bunch of TinyLetter features are broken. The Twitter integration is also broken. Looks like I might have to finally transition this newsletter to Substack like everyone else.)
So what's this new post about? Well, back in January I read a book about the history of Esalen institute and another book about the history of 19th century cults. After I read those a bunch of things started clicking. Today's trauma culture and ancestral diets and reiki and other bits of pseudo-spiritual psycho-physical "healing" phenomena suddenly started to make a lot more sense. Fast forward to October and I'm now reading everything I can get my hands on about the history of psychiatry and trying to figure out exactly how all this stuff works. The blog post explains my working thesis in more detail.
It's exciting and fun to learn a new field from scratch. I haven't decided yet whether I want to actually get my hands dirty and learn any clinical practices. That's more of an investment than I'm ready for. But as usual, I know when I'm onto something important.
I'm also making a lot of new friends as I try to make sense of all of this. If you have some connection to the field, or maybe run a wellness company or an AI chatbot thing, definitely check out my post - maybe we should talk!
I'm taking this project pretty seriously - I've actually taken a little bit of to just think about it and meet people who might share interests. So really, if you think you might have a connection to this work—as a founder in health tech or otherwise, an academic in the medical anthropology field, a clinician, or something else—I'm inviting a reply.
I always end these with "until next time." Next time may be on Substack, so watch out for that.
..
Music recs:
Check out my friend Caleb's mix series, Rooftop Antenna.
For a different vibe entirely, Klangkeusnter at Hör: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch0QL50wLvk
..
Until next time.
Here is "Connecting the Dots on American Psychology."
(As I write this, I notice that a bunch of TinyLetter features are broken. The Twitter integration is also broken. Looks like I might have to finally transition this newsletter to Substack like everyone else.)
So what's this new post about? Well, back in January I read a book about the history of Esalen institute and another book about the history of 19th century cults. After I read those a bunch of things started clicking. Today's trauma culture and ancestral diets and reiki and other bits of pseudo-spiritual psycho-physical "healing" phenomena suddenly started to make a lot more sense. Fast forward to October and I'm now reading everything I can get my hands on about the history of psychiatry and trying to figure out exactly how all this stuff works. The blog post explains my working thesis in more detail.
It's exciting and fun to learn a new field from scratch. I haven't decided yet whether I want to actually get my hands dirty and learn any clinical practices. That's more of an investment than I'm ready for. But as usual, I know when I'm onto something important.
I'm also making a lot of new friends as I try to make sense of all of this. If you have some connection to the field, or maybe run a wellness company or an AI chatbot thing, definitely check out my post - maybe we should talk!
I'm taking this project pretty seriously - I've actually taken a little bit of to just think about it and meet people who might share interests. So really, if you think you might have a connection to this work—as a founder in health tech or otherwise, an academic in the medical anthropology field, a clinician, or something else—I'm inviting a reply.
I always end these with "until next time." Next time may be on Substack, so watch out for that.
..
Music recs:
Check out my friend Caleb's mix series, Rooftop Antenna.
For a different vibe entirely, Klangkeusnter at Hör: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch0QL50wLvk
..
Until next time.
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