Dear J. Wyatt Ehrenfels,

I am a high school student graduating in a years time. From the 9th grade, I have considered being a psychologist. In the beginning of grade 11, I have been doing extensive research on psychology as a career- my finding are discouraging. I know with all my heart, I want to be a psychologist, I want to counsel, and help others, and i strongly believe being a psychologist is such a great way. However, there are so many negative factors.

Today, I was on your website, "What's wrong with Psychology" and my concerns have increased. As I said, I know with all my heart psychology is what I want to do, but i feel it is not wise. What do u recommend I do? I'm torn between changing my career plans, and sticking to it. If you recommend that I change my career, what careers do you deem to be as fulfilling as psychology- mind you I really don't want to switch, but i still want to be successful in life.

Your reply will be greatly appreciated!

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Hello Dr. Ehrenfels I would like to thank you for your frank and so true observations and realities that you have published for students to read on the web. Before I read your postings, I researched "forever" on anything that I could find in regards to graduate school information. I am from Germany where I was unable to obtain a psychology degree (the love of my life profession). When I came to the U.S. 5 years ago, I thought I finally had the opportunity to fulfill my goal of becoming a psychologist. I am so disappointed and discouraged by now, I find it disgusting and frustrating. Why has the field of psychology reduced itself to an APA-obedient, student loan pounding, no-research option leading profession?

Let me explain (even though I think you know what I mean) what the former sentence meant. I worked for 4 years on my B.A. degree, did 1.5 years of research, 3.6 GPA ( A's and B's in all classes ) and did an internship, to get to the point, where I have to take a test (GRE) given by a company for profit that does apparently test my intelligence/ ability to get through graduate school. I did horrible on that test. Besides that, I have applied to 10 graduate institutions and might not get into any of them. I love psychology bit start to hate its professionals:

Summation : I believe, I worked hard enough ( I did my best), I have research experience and a co-authored paper presentation, I took an internship, I applied to 10 different schools ( which was a job in its own), to find out the following:

If I do not get accepted into any psychology doctorate program, I will probably get accepted into a Masters one. But this is another problem; psychology looks down on Masters degrees in their own field , like it is something inferior; getting an M.A. would not help me, because I don't know if any grad school would take me the second time around? Getting an MFT would put me in a position of doctorate programs question my sincerity about research and getting an MSW would put me out of the " race for psychology". WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GO THEN??

I am disgusted by the APA constraints put on programs that give these the opportunity to squeeze 150, 000 Dollars out of students for a PsyD education, but restrict non-accredited finalists from the ability to find regular jobs.

I am thinking already of taking my B.A. and get out of the field, to just enter it trough a different door; taking a job from a psych professor who once told me that elitists views are what you need to succeed in psychology. I am thinking of going on for a MSW degree and then getting my Dr. PH (mental health concentration).

I am disappointed and sad how this is playing out.

The APA got it wrong and you got it right; I can tell because I am experiencing what you are writing about.

If this system of self-destruction continues within the field of psychology, it will change forever . Famous psychologist who have died a long time ago, would probably turn in their graves' , if they could see what has become of their interest.

Thanks again and if you have any comments on my 2 cents, let me know. I would appreciate it. Happy New Year.

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I find the information on your website fireflysun.com incredibility interesting. I agree with you that there is a huge problem with the formal educational in academic courses such as psychology in regards to career and real-life purposes.

My question to you is, how then does a person who is passionately interested in psychology as a science to understand the human mind and psyche, approach the study of psychology?

True, there is no such thing as a psych career. But psychology is at work at every aspect of life itself. So having the knowledge of psychology (true psychology) gives a person great power in dealing with possibly all areas of life such as relating and communicating, business, learning, teaching, thinking, doing any thing... I believe that psychology in it's generic form is basically a category of knowledge. And knowledge can be gained by self-study more than any other way. A person who learns any kind of knowledge through the process of self study can become more learned and wise in that area than those who learn it through beuracratized educational systems.

So then how does he position himself as an expert or respectable authority in the field that he is so devoted and passionately studying in?

I don't think your independent thinking and ideal perspective of things got you into trouble. At least I don't think of it that way. You are not the problem, they are. The trouble is with them, and you're here to fix it. But not all of them can accept or are willing to acknowledge, that things are not right. Either because they have been stupified with themselves or they're not man enough to be authentic. They are selfish, self-serving, unenlightened, scary dumb etc...

People like Sigmund Freud and Anthony Robbins discovered profound truths about the reality of human nature and human change. But their ideas and perpectives were initially treated as controversial and hotly contended against by numerous people who have a stuck mindset in the fields of traditional psychology and psychiatry. It was only after awhile did more and more people realise that what they're talking about makes sense and start accepting it as the truths that should have been seen all along.
Like what Einstein said: Great minds will often face violent opposition from mediocore minds in their time. The world needs more people like you who fight for ideals to create a reformation in the systems that have been screwed by the (for lack of a better word) dumb idiots who devalue and degrade the things that are meant to increase the quality of human capability.

About the things that they make you read in formal education, if the person or the people in charge of the system have the acumen and proper mind to choose the right stuff to form the curriculum and syllabus of the course, then the people enrolling in it will be taught the right things and be well equiped to advance society and human knowledge to the next level.

But if the people in charge don't know what they're doing or don't know what it takes to make the important decisions in the most proper way, then the result of their irresponsibility and foolishness leads to the suffering and malfunctioning of society.

A genius has to take his own path because he finds it downright unacceptable to be lead by those who are blind and unable to see what he sees.

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(This comes from an unknown individual discussing the results of his efforts to make sense of a big dream)

"The problem is, I don't know if dreams have any significance outside of their affect on one's psyche. I don't know if they can be prophetic, or if they are anything but the mind taking a little vacation, creating worldscapes that are only slightly outside the possibility of the waking world. But this dream was very loud, and I'm having a hard time ignoring it or relegating it to the realm of "frivolous mental activity". I know that almost everyone has their own understanding of dreams, and most of 'em are very very different. I imagine Edgar Cayce or Carl Jung would have an extremely different answer to this than perhaps Freud or Wyatt Ehrenfels and that's something I have a hard enough time with in itself. All four of them have amazing theories, and they are all very compelling and informative. I guess they all have something to say, even if none of them have the whole story. This is certainly something that warrants further thought."

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(This comes from a clinical psychologist)

Hi Wyatt,

We connected briefly 3-4 years ago--I forget the context. But I do recall finding an article of yours somewhere at the time, and I appreciated your criticism of the worst that psychology has become.

I came upon you again because, after many years of psychotherapy practice, and 9 years post-PhD (University of Detroit--one of the few remaining depth/psychoanalytic programs around), I finally decided to take the EPPP.

In any case, I found out yesterday that I passed the exam. Along the way, one of the hardest struggles was the realization that I was giving up all this time to study material (about 7-10 weekly hours across 9 months)--80% of which is irrelevant to my practice, and 20% of which is related in rather superficial ways. And which reminded me over and over just how manualized, narrow-minded, and banal the field has become. Needless to say it was a grueling process for me. I hardly identify with the field of psychology, despite my title (though I prefer "psychotherapist"), and the exam process reminded me why.

I too (as you suggested in your EPPP article by way of a quote from some colleague) came to the conclusion that the exam must simply be an initiation rite, since it can't possibly stand up to logical scrutiny. A power trip by the powers-that-be to decide what THEY think is important, "scientific." Something designed to support the businesses which market expensive study materials, and the state boards which take $500 for the exam, for the applicant just to sit at a computer for 4.5 hours. I can't honestly come up with any other conclusion that relates to my being a clinical psychologist in particular.

I have a colleague, with a PhD from a reputable university; she teaches at U of M, and holds two clinical positions elsewhere. She has taken and failed the EPPP four times. What a pity that the system makes it so hard for some folks who have devoted their lives to the field--120 credits in graduate school (probably with great grades), a testing practicum, an internship--and all the other hurdles and checks along the way that you would think would suffice in such a diverse field as psychology to "prove oneself" worthy. But no. At least they could design an exam that covers the nuts and bolts of daily practice. And if that would weed out the whatever percent of grossly shabby practitioners that somehow made it through graduate school, then okay.

And so it was with a feeling of harmless sweet "revenge" that I read your article posted on the absurdity of the EPPP. Thank you! We need folks like you around.

I will continue to let people know about you, your ideas, as I continue myself to speak out about the sad absurdity that psychology, psychiatry, and mental health in general have become.

It all mirrors the fast food, microwave, simple-solution culture we have become, one that eschews individual differences. If you have problems concentrating, you must "have" ADHD, if you're too sad--clinical depression ("a biological disorder we now know"--yeah, right...half-truths), too up or too agitated--bi-polar, blah, blah, blah.

I suggested that the Michigan Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (and the related Academy of the Psychoanalytic Arts) would probably like to host you one day, and I'm not sure how that would even work (not to mention, whether you'd have the time or interest).

I also wanted to clarify that I think these groups would welcome your ideas because they often feature lecturers and presenters (psychologists, psychoanalysts, physicians, and people from other disciplines) who examine (among other things) the issue of organizational dynamics in psychology--and the different ways in which they stifle people who think and work differently than the masses. They also examine manualized approaches to therapy which are borne from those forces. They once hosted a psychoanalyst who's also trained in Chinese medicine; he spoke of how he uses the insights of eastern science in facilitating his dynamic knowledge of his patients, using their somatic complaints. It was refreshing.

Certainly as psychoanalytic groups go--the members of MSPP are relatively open to new ideas and ways of thinking. Leaders in the group like Patrick Kavanaugh, Ph.D. (a former teacher and mentor of mine) and others there are outspoken about institutional dynamics in the field, and repressive elements that would interfere with a phenomenological, scientific and individualized approach to studying the psyche. Most of the group members, for example, are against the idea of certification in psychoanalysis--as they believe that the very idea impedes individuality, autonomy, and creative thinking.

I used to believe psychoanalysis was IT, then I rebelled against that too, because I discovered that, in its own way, organized psychoanalysis was prone to the same rule-bound and rigidified thinking that often exists in mainstream psychology circles; it's just cloaked differently. But MSPP (of which I am not currently a member) hardly represents mainstream psychoanalysis. Check their stuff out.

Anyway, I hope you find the time to browse those sites and I'm curious what you will think. I'd love to have the pleasure of hearing you speak in person someday.

"Without memory or desire" (Bion)....what a profoundly deep, complex notion--which I try to use in my work with people...and which I thought of again while reading your articles. The tension between the power of using concepts, and the risk that they will obscure new discoveries about people and the psyche.

Thanks for sharing your ideas with the public. It gives me an island of a home. Because I don't feel at home at all in psychology, and only somewhat comfortable in psychoanalytic circles. My girlfriend (a Rabbinic student actually, in a progressive, spiritually-minded group organization) has attended some seminars at the Gestalt Institute in Cleveland, and from what she describes about that group--it sounds like they are quite open to new ways of thinking, unafraid to ditch what they usually believe in order to discover something new. It's a little weird for someone of my professional background (well, they're not afraid of discussing transcendental phenomena--, past lives, spirits, etc), but I find it utterly refreshing, and daring. In the best way.

One day too, I shall have to read more Jung. In graduate school, Freud was the main order of the day. I loved Harold Searles writings on psychosis--because it seemed so oriented to the "individual" mind...and fortunately my testing prof. (Pat Kavanaugh, actually, of MSPP) had us read Ernst Schachter's works on the phenomenology of the Rorschach--good stuff, close to human experience.

Yes, we need to start from scratch to understand the human condition in any scientific way. We are too arrogant in what we think we "know", and too afraid to admit to knowing nothing or little. I see it every day. I see it in myself at times, of course. We are all human and prone to this. We all seek certainty and become scared in the abyss of why we're here on this planet, and how to understand war and suffering.

Thanks for being a brave soul.

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(This comes from a radio show producer who operates a web site that raises awareness about gang stalking)

I've read your report. It is stunning, but the in-community 'skits' set up to target us ALSO show the fine hand of skit designers who are superbly qualified in behavioural sciences, so your revealing that psychologists harass you was not a surprise!

Keep giving 'em Hell!

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Hi, J.W. I wanted to thank you for your website. It's what I've been telling myself for the past 13 years when I decided to leave Psychology after I finished my PhD. Your site made me feel better about my decision. I thought you might like to hear a few other "Careers Psychology" reasons from my perspective coming from Counseling Psychology.

In [YEAR DELETED] I was looking for a pre-doctoral Internship in Counseling Psychology. I had already been in school full-time 5 years after college and was becoming disillusioned with the field. There was a cynical, secular culture of "everyone is sick -they just don't know it." The field was much too liberal for me too. My wife, a professional [JOB TITLE DELETED] at the time who was supporting us, had a look of shock when I told her that upon graduation in [YEAR DELETED], I would have to look for my "dream job" in a college counseling center, making about $35,000 until I can find a Directorship to earn more in the future. That was less than she was making with her bachelors. She told me that she was hoping for the option to stay home and raise children (which we had been putting off). I told her not worry, I can teach at night a couple of courses (for an extra $4000 a semester). She then explained how much divorce attorneys cost and if I was interested in knowing my children!

I then thought of private practice, either full or as a supplement. Ha! I discovered it had the same failure rate of any small business, and since I was in grad school I didn't build up referral relationships with Psychiatrists and Hospitals in order to get a private practice going. Plus there's no health benefits, 401K, pension, etc. And Managed Care came along: social workers, from an open-admission program with a non-thesis masters and a multiple-choice licensing exam, were not only being REIMBURSED for therapy, they were supervising psychologists in clinical teams! Certain nurses, Masters-level School Psychologists, and even Bachelors those with certifications in substance abuse or vocational rehab, were also competing with me for reimbursement. The thought of struggling again after 6 years of struggling, and near age 30, was horrible and unfair to my wife who had been sacrificing enough already. Also, private practice is an evening and weekend job. Did I really go through so much to now work evenings and weekends?

Lastly, and this may seem self-centered, but after 6 years of tuition, lost wages, lower income, and "B.S.," I didn't want to struggle anymore. As my wife put it, "what do you have to show for your Ph.D?". So I used my statistical skills (which I was strong in) and got a job at a [STATE OMITTED] Ad Agency in their Marketing Sciences group, basically as an SPSS programmer and some forecast modeling. Not as stimulating as academia, but it paid $50,000 in 1994 which was $15,000 more than psychology jobs. And I had a clean office and day hours. I now work for a major Pharmaceutical Firm in their [DEPARTMENT OMITTED] group doing patient and market modeling. I am respected, feel appreciated, like my work, paid well, and my PhD holds some weight.

I have learned a truism about Career Development, regardless of what field you're in: do not focus on "career satisfaction." Focus on "Life Satisfaction." Your career is your whole life, not just the occupational component (which no one really remembers you for anyway). The Godfather of Counseling Psychology, Donald Super, spoke of such things back in the 1950's. The field did not listen.

thanks again.

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(This comes from the recipient of a research PhD)

I don't like this martyr stuff. You're really coming off as some sort of hero. You make me wish I had failed out of graduate school.

* * *

(This comes from a Doctor of Psychology working as the manager of a children's center clinic).

I’m intrigued ...

I am in no way involved in research of empirical studies, my training has been entirely in the clinical area.

I agree with the statement below. I believe that your understanding of clinical psychology is accurate, and I have not read enough of your thoughts to know whether or not you account for a kind of complexity in the population of clinicial psychologists and in the process of training:

"Now clinical psychology is more diverse. The jobs available to licensed psychologists are as diverse as their pathology. Clinical psychology students want to be anything from Mother Theresa to Tony Robbins to Surgeon General. But please don't allow the diversity to distract you from the underlying pathology. Indeed the problems hide in the diversity."

In the field of psychology, I believe a frightening tension always exists between authority/power and the heroic myth (Mother Theresa, Tony Robbins, etc). The latter is unaware of the former, but its motives entirely dependent upon it. Those who enter the field, buy into the myth wholesale, and forget the process of self-discovery, curiosity, desire, and the dreaming of their own psyches can be said to be “pathological.”

Psychology is a monkey science. It should not be considered as anything more.

Not all modern psychology, by the way, is interested in controlling chaos. I believe that psychotherapists who embrace the chaotic, the creative, the degenerative and the regenerative processes of nature, wish to help people utilize the vast potential of chaos and change.

There is more to say. I will read more of your work.

* * *

(This comes from an assistant professor at a state university in Georgia. She asked her student, an undergraduate, to research the requirements for a career in Psychology. The student drew heavily from Ehrenfels career page)

"Thanks Wyatt. I can see why you would want to link to this presentation. This presentation was actually created by one of my undergraduate students last semester. My student told me that he wanted to be a Professor of Psychology. I told him that I wanted to see him give a presentation on what it takes to be a Professor of Psychology and to give me information about what his life would be like during and after his training. Since this presentation, it appears that he is at least rethinking his career path. Students should really understand what they are getting into and what they will get out of it – as his picture of the bottleneck masterfully demonstrates.

I am leaving academia this semester and most academic portions of my website will be taken down. However, below is the email of the student who created this presentation. You are welcome to ask him if you can use his presentation on your website. Maybe he will let you host the file off of your webspace. This is likely. He's a nice guy and pretty easy going.

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(This comes from the above-mentioned psychology major Chris Todd, who asked to be on the record)

I know you.

Not only your name, but the ideas, convictions, and words, which are the basis for that name's rapidly increasing value in the field of psychology (whether the field recognizes it or not), precedes the email you sent me. I have read your book and the website that Dr. [NAME OF ADVISOR]'s powerpoint project synchronistically led me to, forcing me to choose between completing the project or saying "[EXPLETIVE] the project" and reading every little golden nugget on your site, which would have taken weeks.

You the last surviving psychologist in terms of what it should mean to be called a psychologist, and it is with cosmic irony that you, the only true steward of the truth of human nature has to use a pseudonym in order to protect himself in the pursuit of that inviolate truth. As Aristotle says, this is a non-contradiction. Is it rational that a person seeking truth should have to lie about his very namesake? It is when the people in charge of honoring the truth lie to themselves about honoring it. When i read about you, i became an immediate convert to your cause..i emailed you once to try to contribute my little piece of encouragement to your what you have chosen to do....the role of truthseeker is a lonely one....just ask Jesus, Galileo, and Ehrenfels, am i right?..hehe, anyways i thought to myself, this is the kind of crusade i would want to be a part of, would devote my life to; however, the state of the psychological institution as it is now, i'm just the kind of person who would benefit from a system of community, conformity, and likemindedness...i do not have the fiery individual creativity or genius for an institution, such as the one you directly experienced, to extinguish. The only service i could offer any leader of a crusade is my service as cannon fodder, and since your crusade is a non-violent one, i could only offer my services as coffee and bagel fetcher. But i would be proud to do it. The fact that i created something of a little value to you, the rockstar of psychology, will be the highlight of my psychological career, whatever that will consist of. I thank you for giving my powerpoint project the meaning that only you could have given it, you being the inspiration for it. Use it in anyway you please ... maybe you can return the favor and sign my copy of Fireflies (i think i finally grasped the meaning of the title) ... i have so many questions to ask you, doctor, but i'll wait for another time, you've got a crusade to fight ... Godspeed"

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(Believe it or not, this message has been traced to a former member of the Iowa State of Psychology Examiners and liaison to the Board from the Iowa State Psychology Association)

I truly love that [Ehrenfels]. He and Jesness [another critical ethnographer] are serious competitors for the Olympic gold medal, for the 50 yard dash: run like hell to get away from people with brains.

I wish some of the scientists here would evaluate those two morons, to see how it is that anybody can be so clueless as to believe that they actually have supporters.

But I'm off topic: [Ehrenfels] might be able to write a little better, but he only writes while he flogs his meat (Vienna Sausage). His wifey quit giving him any a long, long time ago, since she can't stomach such a loser.

So, now Ehrenfels toys with himself. I wish he could get it up a bit aster, because maybe then he would write shorter crap.

Brimstone's best advocate.

* * *

I recently took the EPPP (last week), and had the feeling that this had little relevance, and was mind-numbing with the hair-splitting questions on minutae. I don't know if I passed or not, and I'm also not sure that studying a lot more would help me choose the "best" answer. I was trying to learn more about how this test was developed when I ran across your article on the EPPP. I must say that you validated several things I was thinking about it.

Keep up the good work. It is nice to see someone who has the nerve to question the way that this field is going with a disregard for the endless PC and dumbed-down approaches. It's too bad that they probably won't listen and will continue to stifle creativity and divergent thinking.

* * *

DearJ W Ehrenfels

I got myself into serious troubel (and proud of it) for speaking aginst how Psychologists take over the lives s of perfectly innocient people and demand their "clients" to live in the world the Psycologist themselves "dream up"! Anyway to make it short (I got to go) "Im happy for ya". Speak the truth as the truth itself witnesses the lies spoken by those more concerned about their own egos instead of "fact".

[NAME DELETED]

mike...@earthlink.net

EarthLink Revolves Around You.

* * *

Dear Sir

Thank you.

I have searched and searched for information pertaining to this subject, obviously reaching dead ends and brick walls during my quest.

May or may not get back to you about the content of your site, but I am impressed with your tenacity and belief in your work. I have held this belief close to my heart and transfer it to many professions, not only psychology. I had toyed with the idea of studying psychology - but always I had doubts as to the actual profession. I found that there was very little ability on the part of many psychs to see in their patient what was so obvious to a lay person or even the proverbial blind man. It seemed that study in the field of psychology has the capacity to negate or even 'remove' empathy within the student, therefore rendering him impotent and ineffective in his/her chosen field. Statistics and Bell curves. Diagnostic Criteria, spread sheets. What about the human? What about a hug?

Important. You are important.

* * *

Sir,

I was reading your essay on extreme prejudice, and was quite impressed. Your vocabulary challenged me, as precious few vocabularies do, and for that I thank you. Your writing style is excellent, it made it possible for me to take you seriously instead of disregarding you as another dissatisfied quack longing for a moment in the sun. However, I did note one flaw that stands a good chance of eliminating any effect your work might have on the psychological community. You made use of popular culture references, specifically to The Matrix. The fact is that, no matter how valid your point, this reference only makes you look juvenile to your peers. Any reference to a work that has not gained the respect of the community to which it is addressed will only detract from the effect of the statement it is intended to make.

I have not read your other works, but if they also include such references as this, it is no mystery to me that you have not received the credit you deserve from the scientific community. I humbly advise you to adopt more care in your choice of metaphors, as there is much more acceptable material that can be used to precisely the same effect. Nothing new under the sun.

If you feel inclined to contact me, do not respond to this address, as I will likely never get the e-mail. Write to Ashton_Whithers@juno.com and I will receive it eventually. Best of luck.

Your in all sincerity,

* * *

I'm just wondering if you know the origins of your name Ehrenfels? It's my middle name and I'm thinking of making it my last name. My parents (who are now both dead) told me I was conceived near the castle of Ehrenfels in Germany. I've heard it means 'rock of honor'. But I really don't 'know' anything else about it... where it comes from, what it actually means... My first name is [NAME DELETED], which quickly became [NAME DELETED].

If you have a thought or a moment to spend on this enticing question, do respond! I'd be so happy to hear from you!

- [NAME DELETED] (of New York City)

* * *

(This comes from a Clinical Psychology PhD Recipient)