I am an Amateur Psychologist!

When I was about 13, I realized that there were a few things very wrong about Socialist reality, and at the age of 15, I accidentially ended up in an oppositional group that advertized itself as a book club in the local library. It was a refreshing and liberating experience to be exposed to people (most of whom were ten years my senior), who dared to think on their own, free from all ideological restraints. I was so amazed that such people actually existed in this world I couldn't wait to tell my parents how exciting that discussion group was. They immediately forbade me to go to such groups and told me to keep my mouth shut. So, a week later, I was being a nice schoolgirl and had re-named this discussion group the "literature youth club" and kept my mouth shut about what we really discussed.

Back then, as today, a political revolution is the last thing I want, because revolutions merely replace one oppressive regime with another one. And as long as the psychological evolution of human beings is not keeping pace with the socio-political development, all such progress is in vain. I could observe that during the last months of the German Democratic Republic — the intellectuals and alternative people who declared, "We are the people", got screamed down by greedy, opportunist, and drunk folks who hijacked and mutilated this slogan to "We are one people".

I was disillusioned, and after I also failed at love and friendship, I withdrew from active involvement for the next 15 years, to go searching for the Philosopher's Stone, the Grand Unified Theory, and a deeper understanding of human nature.

I discovered psychology — that is my main interest today. Not the "childhood-dirt-digging" drivel that makes people helpless and aims at shoehorning creative people into a sick society (Sigmund Freud). Not the marketing and work psychology ("public relations"/"spin doctors"/Edward Bernays) that tries to exploit, surpress, and manipulate humans more effectively. And not the belly-button-exploring that sorts people into ever smaller, meaningless categories (C.G. Jung).

And certainly not the pop psychology that consists of personality tests in magazines and on the internet, that categorizes people (What kind of fruit cake are you?). Personality tests invite people to put themselves into boxes, giving them the perfect excuse to never examine and improve their relationships with others. What kind of relationship could five different kinds of fruit cake possibly have?

What I am interested in is the humanist peer psychology (polarity theory) of Paul Rosenfels. I think his insights will be common knowledge 100 years from now. (I used to think it might take 200 years, but now that I see how thirsty for knowledge people are, I think it won't take that long.)

For years, I have been trying to find like-minded people who are interested in a scientific humanist psychology, and in fact, there is a group in society that is very gifted at discovering psychological truth — those people known as New Age folks, or esoterics. I did learn a bit about traditional Chinese medicine, and about healthy nutrition, I even considered becoming a physiotherapist for a short while, but none of these things are really challenging, and they don't address social and human progress. This is merely physical and spiritual wellness. Nothing wrong with feeling good, but do you know what happens with pets or zoo animals that merely "feel well"? They will get bored and depressed because they, like us humans, also need challenges, not just stress reduction.

Maybe the most challenging thing these spiritually talented people are interested in is "supernatural" phenomena. And while exploring crop circles, ghosts and orbs does require scientific effort, these things are not relevant to humans. The main mistake of the New Agers is that they are more interested in UFO's, channelling and supernatural phenomena than in actually understanding and improving interpersonal relationships. Dear mystics, you are not doing your job — you are not helping people grow. You are just pampering them a bit.

Well, now I am back in active life, and I try to get spiritually talented people interested in concrete human problems, provide first aid to burnt-out activists (that they should be getting from the New Agers!), and wake up the people around me. And my first expeditions into the world of activists convinced me that I am really needed now.