Is Psychology a prurient subject?

Affable

Should our minds be turned towards more noble purposes than investigating our own minds too deeply? Is this not prurient?
What is the degree of investigation into the human mind that is ethical, how should we define it? Does the line you shouldn't cross even exist?

p.pete

I'm tempted to move this to philosophy
Perfectly valid question of course. What would be a more noble purpose?

Affable

p.pete wrote: »

I'm tempted to move this to philosophy
Perfectly valid question of course. What would be a more noble purpose?

Wel, practical, philosophical, political concerns. Or creative ones.

p.pete

Affable wrote: »

Should our minds be turned towards more noble purposes

So more noble purposes being "practical, philosophical, political concerns", do these areas not already exist? They have labels, and I know people who study them.
Should our minds be turned in only one direction?

Affable

p.pete wrote: »

So more noble purposes being "practical, philosophical, political concerns", do these areas not already exist? They have labels, and I know people who study them.
Should our minds be turned in only one direction?

They exist of course. I'm saying our minds should be turned in multiple interesting directions, but not necessarily inward into our own minds too far. It could be dangerous.

p.pete

prurient:
adj.
Inordinately interested in matters of sex; lascivious.

Characterized by an inordinate interest in sex: prurient thoughts.
Arousing or appealing to an inordinate interest in sex: prurient literature.

what kind of dangers do you think are in there? I'm intrigued.

Affable

p.pete wrote: »

what kind of dangers do you think are in there? I'm intrigued.

Too much manipulation, like by media/advertising/government

JuliusCaesar

Have you been reading Brave New World/Walden/1984? Just wondering.....


Definitions of prurient on the Web:

lubricious: characterized by lust; "eluding the lubricious embraces of her employer"; "her sensuous grace roused his lustful nature"; "prurient literature"; "prurient thoughts"; "a salacious rooster of a little man"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Uneasy with desire; itching; especially, having a lascivious anxiety or propensity; lustful; Arousing or appealing to sexual desire; (US, law) Sick, morbid or shameless
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prurient

pruriency - prurience: feeling morbid sexual desire or a propensity to lewdness
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Odysseus

But are there not general characteristics of the human mind and then more subjective ones that are specific to that subject. The latter would not fall into your dangerous area would they?

Valmont

Affable wrote: »

Should our minds be turned towards more noble purposes than investigating our own minds too deeply? Is this not prurient?
What is the degree of investigation into the human mind that is ethical, how should we define it? Does the line you shouldn't cross even exist?

Prurient? I don't see how the study of psychology is prurient. What do mean by investigating our own minds too deeply? How is that prurient?

There are fairly comprehensive ethical codes from all of the major psychological organisations so that angle is pretty well covered.

Valmont

Affable wrote: »

Too much manipulation, like by media/advertising/government

I feel I'm going to get pulled into a vague and unspecified "argument".

Psychology is prurient because there is too much manipulation by the media and government? That makes no sense and I think you've confused prurient with some other word, I thought that as soon as I read the thread title. You need to explain your issue here a bit better.

Affable

Valmont wrote: »

I feel I'm going to get pulled into a vague and unspecified "argument".

Psychology is prurient because there is too much manipulation by the media and government? That makes no sense and I think you've confused prurient with some other word, I thought that as soon as I read the thread title. You need to explain your issue here a bit better.

Prying, that better? Psychology has a morbid, excessive interest in the human mind, it pries too much.

Discuss

Valmont

Affable wrote: »

Prying, that better? Psychology has a morbid, excessive interest in the human mind, it pries too much.

Discuss

Of course it is prying! It is the investigation into the mind and behaviour. How on earth is that morbid? Medicine has an excessive interest with curing sick people but I wouldn't call it morbid for that reason. How does psychology "pry" too much? What do you mean?

Putting synonyms with negative connotations on things we already know and are obvious do not make for good discussion.

Humria

Psychology has the aim of understanding the mind. I'm not sure how understanding it is negative. If psychology wasn't making a big attempt to achieve that aim, then what would be the point of it?

We have already learnt some very practical knowledge about how we work. For example memory is a lot more susceptible to change and falsification than common sense would tell us. This has immediate implications for eyewitness testimony as it is the most convincing but some of the least reliable evidence.

Treatment of mental disorders have also benefited by psychological study. Schizophrenia for example, has a biological basis and neuropsychological study has spotted some of the main neurotransmitters involved. This means that medical treatment can be more specific which reduces side effects of medication.

In regards to the media, I'm not sure what you are getting at. I think that understanding the effects of media manipulation can only be a good thing. I mean if everyone knew how it worked, we would all be a lot less susceptible. Media and government manipulation isn't directly linked to psychology anyway.

As other posters have already said, there are very strict ethical guidelines and any you apply to do research your proposal has to go through a set of procedures that determine whether it is in accordance with these guidelines.

This is an honest question, how much do you actually know about psychology? The points you are making are vague and more like buzz words than a specific claim.