So I was grading paper after paper and seeing a disturbing amount of homogeny. Everyone basically just said the same thing over and over again: The field of psychology has flaws, but it does more harm then good. And anyway, someday science will find a solution to all our problems, so why worry." Sigh.

This is not to say there weren't some good kernels of ideas, people coming to the edge of questioning all those things science tells us our fact, the binary nature of gender, the denial of civil liberties for the "protection" of the mentally dis-eased. Clearly, some were troubled. But then, they step back, step away. At just the point where you want to embrace the discomfort, they performed the fancy footwork of denial. And their faith in science was the spoonful of sugar to help the hypocrisy go down.

On the one hand, I should be hopeful. There is awareness, there is the nagging voice in the back of their heads saying that something is indeed rotten in this state of affairs. But they are grown-ups now. They have so many defenses, so many things with which to take comfort that all be be right, without any personal effort. How do we get so good at lying to ourselves? Does the desire for absolution really take the place of justice?

I find myself asking how I can help them listen to the whispers, really turn their eyes and ears inward. Ask themselves, not what they are told is right, but what they know to be. And once they know this, to use discontent as the feul of action. And finally, how do I do this without filling their heads with my own perspective?

Benignly Yours.