Tag: Kirk Schneider


Election 2016: Politics in the age of polarization

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Saybrook University’s own Dr. Stanley Krippner engages in a round table discussion with long-time faculty member, author, and existential psychologist Dr. Kirk Schneider about the fractured condition of our society in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The Age of Reason Must Give Way to the Age of Depth

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Gustave Dore’s illustration for Don Quixote. We’ve got a glaring problem in this country and world. It’s not our only problem and it isn’t the cause of all sorrows, but today, it’s one of the chief problems we face—and it is scarcely scrutinized by psychologists. The problem to which I refer is our socio-economic model… Read more »

The Peril is Not Mental Illness but the Polarized Mind: The Social Catastrophe That Gets Repeatedly Overlooked

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There is a reason that many of the most twisted and destructive people on this planet are not seen as “mental patients.” They tend to be ordinary or even celebrated individuals—and their brains are as “normal” as the rest of us. Does this not tell us something glaring about the inadequacy of our current diagnostic… Read more »

Finally addressing the Polarized Mind

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US Navy photo circa 1962. As long as we focus on symptoms, we’ll lose the battle to fight extremism and polarization—and not just with deranged gunmen, radicalized bombers, or overzealous vigilantes. We’ll lose the battle with rabid ideologues, shameless executives, and bullheaded politicians; with merciless drug lobbyists and myopic corporate polluters. We’ll lose the battle… Read more »

The New Apologists for Modernity

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Mass graves in Rwanda. Photo by Adam Jones. While it is undeniable that science and technology has improved the living conditions of many, it is patently misleading to imply that, due to these developments, modernity has somehow “triumphed” over the spiritual and religious legacies of our past. And yet this is precisely the suggestion of… Read more »

The Future of Existential Psychology: Humanistic Psychologyês Chief Task: To Reset Psychology on its Rightful Existential Base

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Photo by NASA. While some in the field continue to believe that psychology proceeds purely on the basis of positivistic science (e.g., Baker, McFall, & Shoham, 2008), I contend that this is patently naïve. Psychology was and probably always will be a philosophically based discipline. In this light, the field of psychology has actually been… Read more »