So my best friend is a graduate psychologist and she’s rather sceptical about astrology. I on the other hand think that both don’t exclude each other, that’s why I really like Carl Jung ( one of the many reasons). Often we have quite heated debates on the topic...
Do you think that psychology and astrology can cooperate?
Do you think that astrology can serve as a diagnostic tool and where do you draw the line between both?
Great topic. I firmly and emphatically believe so. I think at its heart, psychology wants to understand human nature and our drives/motivations. It helps people break patterns that have been ingrained as conditioning or unrecognized/unacknowledged trauma. Now, read all that I wrote above again, but replace astrology with psychology. Its all still valid!
A good psychologist will never turn their back from any tools at their disposal. As long as astrology is not used as a crutch of determinism (I can't do XYZ because I have this aspect, or I will never date a person with this synastry), it can be a wonderful container to organize and categorize human condition with.
My interest in psychology is what led me to astrology. As a child I always wondered why there seemed to be different groups of personalities . To this day it still is a way for me to understand others. Also myself.
I do.
I have wanted to bridge the two. Magic and illusions are already being observed, with trial experiments and the like. The same for parapsychology.
It's all about data, right? I've always wanted to find longitudinal and repeatable evidence that supports (or not) the vast astrological knowledge, that is in many ways intuitive BUT there is a time element in conjunction with planetary locations involved, giving HARD DATA to track consistently and we could thus put up against the projected characteristics.
I'm a psychology student, applying for Graduate school next month. This type of project is on my list and has been for years.
@darkaquarian Do you think you can find symptoms in the natal chart? Also do you think astrology can help in the healing process of a mind the way psychology can?
I did noticed prominent Libra in bipolar people for example. Off course this is certainly not enough...
Perhaps not symptoms but maybe consistent data that might suggest certain physiological outcomes or personality traits.
For something like this to gain traction, I believe that starting simple is essential. There has to be some evidence to suggest that the data is consistent, which would lead to more funding and "deeper" studies allowed by whoever.
If I were wealthy, I would just create my own lab, hire some poor, ambitious people and get to it.
All that's needed are great, pin-point questionnaires, volunteers to take them, and time spent crunching some simple data numbers, then have a written synopsis of the findings.
On my holiday reading list is Jung's authorized biography. He used astrology as a tool to categorize human condition. Also used one year of his life off his practice and lecture tours to just record his dreams (wouldn't it be interesting if he has a Neptune transit at that time?) I don't think the two subjects are mutually exclusive.