Being a graduate from 3 years of studying psych and with an active experience of mental illness, I can say that no amount of studying theory and doing therapy+ taking meds for years helped me realize the root of my problems and my worth as a human. more than Marxist analysis. I live to be a part of the revolution, and as long as psychotherapy reinforces the client to believe in themselves and to accept the realities of it is what it is, it will never achieve its job of liberating the person. There is a need for psychology to gain a Marxist perspective, more so from modern day leftists in the mental health field.
This is why sociology is so important and needs to be recognized as an integral part of education and how we understand the world. It goes without saying that we live in an excessively individualistic culture, and that causes us to be in denial about how much these larger social factors affect us. We are all trained to see ourselves as singular instead of part of communities, populations, groups, and to see institutions as singular entities instead of parts of larger structures that make up a greater, overarching system that’s connected to and that perpetuates the issues we face as individuals.
Unfortunately sociology is pretty much the definition of what conservatives are fighting against in education and the “culture wars”: Understanding the experiences of oppressed groups and finding solutions to probems on a social level. So of course it’s not well respected or well known. I have to explain my major every time I bring it up and someone assumes I’m a social worker. The more we understand how our society works, the better equipped we will be to change it.
Have you met any conservative sociologists? I can’t imagine studying sociology and coming out the other side with a hierarchical mindset.
I feel like the same should be said of those who study economics or history but you still see people who have whilst promoting conservative view-points