If European psychology is founded on an inquiry into the relationship between the individual and society (the organization), or into existence itself, American psychology is founded on the relationship between individual and individual — on reflection about the self.
As a result, the former uses belief and existence as evidence to testify to the dignity of the Absolute, while the latter uses pragmatism and experiment as evidence to represent the interests of the capitalist class.
In the end, the former follows absolutism and totalitarian enlightenment; the latter chases consumerism and self-centeredness.
What they have in common is this: rather than calling for a transformation of the social system, they tend to advise the individual to change (to sacrifice, to choose) on their own.
Psychology is the study of the individual, and so it tends to place its weight not on the relationship between each individual and the socio-political-economic system they inhabit, but on each individual's good-or-bad strategies and coping styles.
The upshot is that instead of looking for and fixing the structural causes inside the organization you belong to, psychology offers ways to adapt to the organization's system.
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Slow Days·말로만 듣던 마흔
Some Gut-Feel Thoughts on Psychology
This English version was translated by Claude.
