Psychobabble

Psychobabble is a word, an expression ,whose use can be attributed to journalist Richard Dean Rosen who publicly used it in 1977. It refers to the media's use of words and expressions  like, “dysfunctional family,” “type ‘A’ personality,  “up-tight” or “co-dependent;” words deriving  their origin in the field of psychology and subsequently have made their way into our common everyday usage.

The word “psychobabble” is often used by someone who believes the world of psychology to be somewhat of a non-scientific head-trip with bizarre terminology that makes no sense to the average person unless he has wrapped his brain about the high minded lofty notion of nonsensical realities.   Rosen however, specifically implicated that the “babbling,” was more like that of a baby who just learning a new language learns a new word and then applies it to everything. He intended to infer that psychology and psychological jargon is over-used and perhaps a bit overrated, often even totally irrelevant to how it happened to be used in a particular instance and misapplied.

Psychology, is based on observation, with interpretation of course; and for those who practice it’s guiding principles in their daily lives, (depending of course on which aspect or interpretation they adhere to, (be it Jung or Freud or someone else, and how much to each they personally ascribe “wisdom,”) it is considered (by them) to be good sound logical understanding of life and the human experience. It is the source of their understanding and guide for their human reasoning, a way of perceiving and living life. Full of principles and insights into the inner workings of the human mind, a person's "worldview" and how they view the world and themselves, it is almost like a religion.

Psychology deals with mental processes. It’s the way a person thinks about themselves in relation to the world and other people. It’s a philosophy of how to build “healthy” relationships, particularly in family, but not excluding managing business, organizing educational curriculum and standards, parenting children, basically viewing the world.  The word itself is derived from the Greek word 'psyche' meaning breath, spirit, or soul, more evidence that true "psychology" is "spiritual"  and about understanding who you are.  A person into psychology will most likely "need" psychotherapy, which is the application of psychology in it’s various forms. This therapy in all it's forms is what nurtures your understanding of that soul or spirit, the person that you are or can become, give you a "healthy" identity...(if is it Id?) This of course because psychology helps you understand YOU better, instructs YOU in what YOU say and do and don't do unto others and what YOU should and should not believe.

It is all about YOU.

Unfortunately as enamored with thoughts of ourselves as we all are, the whole field of psychology is built on the false premise of self and self discovery being the most important think in life the universe and everything.   This can be a problem for Christians, who, not unlike people in psychotherapy know very much they are spiritual beings souls and psyches, feeling hopeless, helpless, like their life is a wreck and feeling like they need salvation from the things too difficult to bear.  Christians have a great savior than themselves, God.

Even if a particular branch of psychology is dubbed “spiritual” in nature it is often entwined like a weed in the occult, in fact, much of psychology has deep roots l in realms of the occult and the problem is that one may realize it’s origin until it’s too late.

In the realm of psychology, one begins with the understanding they have a problem and need help, and they get help from a psychologist, one who has studied and now knows how the mind works.  From there, the problem is identified and dealt with, and then one psychological understanding is built on top of another until a person can finally look back over their lives and understand everything about themselves and all the hows and whys of who they are and the person they have become.  They identify who is and who is not to blame for them being the way they are and learn new truths on which to base their lives if their consellors do not happen to be Christian, but are atheists.

And is such a person were to be Christian, to ascribe to a belief in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, they would most likely be expected to refrain from talking about "sin" or pointing the ailing one to Christ as the redeemer or the Savior, or the wisdom of the Bible as holding the answer to everything that ails both genders of the human species, man and woman. Such a thing as this is, for the humanly educated mind, often far too simplistic.  Most counselors of psychology have been duly trained by atheists, and as graduates of the educational ladder, they know earily man's ideas of God are but "a myth" and with a more realistic view of life, the universe and everything, know that their work helps humanity evolve into the next level of awareness... that they are the masters of their own realities, maybe even God, certainly not sinners being convicted of any guilt or shame.

The wisdom and knowledge that feeds the soul of man in “psychology” is very different from the wisdom and knowledge of God. It is even a bit like the situation that took place at the Tower of Babel long ago. (Genesis 11:1-11)

The Tower of Babel is, just a story right?  Who on earth reads such tales, tales like the story of the Tower of Babel?  Who on earth even thinks that they are true?

Is it true? 


The Tower of Babel in the Bible, was said to be built by Nimrod and Nimrod, we learn in various sources of history that Nimrod was a real person, and a king, a king in a place now considered to be modern day Iraq.  The Tower of Babel was an ancient “tower” being built within the city wall no doubt a common practice in that time period, and the bible tells us that the building of this mighty "tower to the heavens" was a combined effort of all the peoples of the earth .  It took place under the direction of Nimrod, King of Babylon in the city of Babel when he ruled, which would have been around 3400 BC.

Babel was a real tower, built with bricks that the people made with their own hands.  These bricks were then stuck together using slime for mortar as they built for themselves first a city then  a tower that reached up to the sky.  Their goal was heaven, and they were doing it without God, for they had their own gods they created for themselves to worship; and they did, even unto the total disrespect of the God who gave man life in the beginning.    Leaving God's basic instructions behind them they made their own and yet, they still wanted heaven, or at least access to heaven from the earth.  They believed that if they worked together, (and they could work together well because they all spoke one language and understood one another perfectly,) they could build a tower to the sky.

But God, being God, (who knows and sees all things,) saw what they were doing and confounded them by changing their languages and thus putting an end to all their work.  Unable to make sense of one anothers babbling talk, not understanding one anther's words, they could no longer cooperate and the peoples were dispersed, each going out to find some habitable place somewhere else. 

Their dream was shattered.  The work was ended  and the Tower was  left incomplete and abandoned, at least until more recent days. 

The goal of building such a tower then, as it is today, is reaching heaven... so that man, any man, every man, perhaps even one single man can sit over all the earth, over all that is called God and proclaim himself to be God, even if he is not.  Ruler over land sea and sky, knowing all there is to know and more, the creature will then marvel at the works of his own hands, and make his own laws regarding what is good and what is right.  He will deliver justice as his own justice will see fit,  and do good deeds to suit his own perceptions and desires, to get him what he wants and think he needs. The tower of Babel, if it were to be built today, would be built on man's own foundation, and have nothing whatsoever to do with the true and living God, creator and sustainer of all the heavens and the Earth.

Some think that such things are but a myth of man's imagination, but there was in Babylon an ancient ziggurat that fits such a strange and curious description. It is mentioned in the writings of Nebucanezzar, and named also by the Greek historian Herodotus.  It is known as  "Etemenanki,” a Sumarian name which means, “house of the foundation of heaven on earth.” (Some references to Etemenanki say, “the house foundation of sky and earth” or “"The temple of the creation of heaven and earth.") Some believe remnants of it have been discovered. 

The annuls of the Assyrian King Sennacherib mention such a temple as well.  He claims he and his armies destroyed such a temple in Babylon in 689 BCE. Alexander the great is said to have ordered it’s rebuilding in 331 BC, but this never happened.  A man named Antiochus however, is said to have finally rebuilt it, but he also is said to have ordered that it be destroyed by elephants, and until recent years, there in the rubble, babble lay; at least until the German explorer and archeologist Robert Johann Koldewey claimed to have found the ruins of Etemenanki when he discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq in 1913.

In the Bible story of the Tower of Babel, God saw this temple that the people had built, this tower to heaven and He knew that once this was complete, nothing would be restrained from man he would do whatever it was that he imagines himself to do.  God confounded their language,  the people dispersed and then God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees.

Today we have psychology experts to do more than connect us in language, but to connect the inner workings of our minds. We have psychology giants like Joseph Alder, Sigmund Freud, Ray Rosenman, Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung, Erich Fromm and others who are responsible for coining certain terms and phrases we see in common use, like: “defense mechanism,” “inner child,” “ego,” “introvert,” “type “A” personality” or something called the “collective consciousness of humanity. ”

Such words seem like babble to some, "psychobabble" in fact, but to others it is the very things that will help us better understand ourselves and relate to one another.  Current teachings from many a university teaches that these psychologists are wise men that know what they were talking about and are even quite devoted to the fountains of human wisdom that babble forth from their lips as they speak, and write and teach the rest of us their wisdom.  While they babel, some still Bible.


Psychology as a discipline, considered to be a type of science, and "it is believed to embrace all aspects of the human experience — from the functions of the brain to the actions of nations, from child development to care for the aged.” (American Psychological Association definition of psychology.) There is nothing in the human experience to which it cannot be applied and by psychology’s own definition, this would include spiritual experiences as well. 

But there are two very distinct and divergent fonts of "wisdom."  There is human wisdom that is earthly and formulated by men who believe they are so very smart, in control of everything, even on their way to becomming a god, and then there is the wisdom from above, the wisdom of Almighty God.  A thirsty soul should be thoughtful about which brook they drink from and what water is their source.  One babbling brook give life only in this world, and one gives living water that actually revives the soul.
 

Like fresh flowing living water, Jesus’ words are true, and they come from a source that can be trusted. Jesus’ words are heavenly derived and they flow from the eternal rock, the solid foundation put in place on earth by God. Christians know God's word is the true source of life, words that like rain from heaven fall to earth on parched dry lifeless ground.And they do not return void.

But then again, to some, who are merely saturated with their own ideas, giving heed to the wisdom which originates from the earth, the falling rain from heaven is undesirable. It even ruins all their work.
To them such wisdom of God, even stories of the tower of Babel, is merely myth, or just for imaginative children who have yet to be adulterated, indoctrinated by the wisdom of world..