Further Similarities
Psychologists and writers have many motivations in common. In part 1 of psychology and literature, we discussed nonjudgment and holding the mirror to nature. Here are other commonalities.
Identifying cause:
We all sometimes wonder how something came to be, and how we can make it better. It’s why ‘origin stories’ are often the most beloved for the characters we connect with. Psychological researchers and practitioners use complex theories and measurements (not always number-based) to assess factors believed to be causative. They gradually produce models of how factors interact and lead to outcomes. Depending on the interpretation of the information gathered, psychologists might develop their models further, or change them. Finally, psychologists assess whether you can influence key factors to systematically improve matters. Literature similarly places characters into crises with a variety of immediate, historical, and systemic causes. The writer then shows different ways people try to manage these challenges – sometimes well, and sometimes not so much.
Even within similar systems, novels can explore very different outcomes. For example, 1984 ends quite differently from The Giver. This is also true of psychological research, albeit much trickier to do ethically. Some studies of conformity and authority, like the Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies, explore important causative questions. Unfortunately, at the expense of participant wellbeing.
In both psychology and writing, it is also important to recognize that there is never one, comprehensive model. The universe is too complex: there are always more perspectives and more causative elements, and the systems themselves constantly evolve.
Working through conflict and suffering:
In grade school, we learned how types of conflict shape stories: person versus person, person versus nature, person versus self, person versus system, etc. The oldest recorded stories, like Gilgamesh, were just as defined by these struggles as those from now. Conflict is a necessary element. It forms a core part of how we see ourselves and the world around us. As the Buddhist proverb says, Life is Suffering.
That suffering is part of the work in psychology seems self-evident. What takes more effort to understand is that, like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghostbusters, we have some control over the form of our suffering, but we cannot prevent it. Suffering is inherent to the dynamics of life.
Subverting misinformation and prejudice:
When wielded specifically, psychology and literature can be tools for justice. While nonfiction writing can be more direct, fiction can be more persuasive. When I read Native Son by Richard Wright in high school, the emotional gut-punch of Bigger’s experience opened my heart to a world of injustice that was previously just ideas. Through writers like George Eliot, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Nella Larsen, and Toni Morrison, I felt the daily, exhausting grind women of various backgrounds face to claim any say over their fates. These narratives are imperative. They pull out the pin to release the hot air from the overwhelming and controlling dominant story.
Promoting misinformation and prejudice:
Unfortunately, literature has also been a force for reinforcing stereotypes and promoting the power of one group to control another. Novels that mix fantasy with reality to suggest that poor people can easily pull themselves up ‘by their own bootstraps.’ Stories dominated by helpless women and strong-silent-type men. Ones that fall at either end of showing people of color as either innocent, dumb, and passive, or alternatively conniving and dangerous. Cervantes was prescient in showing that literature wields a double-edged sword.
Alas, psychology is also double-edged. Just like the other sciences, psychological research and practice has shown the power and motivation to do much good for humanity. Unfortunately, the images in the rearview mirror (and front windshield, if you look carefully) reveal many bodies run over along the way. Psychology has revealed to us our biases, our illusions, and our dangerous habits. Psychologists have repeatedly fallen prey to these very challenges. Psychology can help us understand how to learn better, care for each other better, and work with each other better. For more information on how the mental health field has been snared by prejudice and is working to overcome this, you could try out my classes! See this link for more info.