Soundbites from popular psychology do not help improve mental health

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In my last column, I discussed why students should pay equal attention to mental wellness and physical health. Though effective mental health practices — management of disruptive emotions, cultivation of meaningful social relationships, and so on — are largely neglected, we reflexively seek them out. If people are unaware of good methods for managing their mental states, they will settle for poor ones. This is where the self-help genre known as “popular psychology” holds its power.

Popular psychology celebrates an American cultural conception about well-being: mental health is achieved through the relentless pursuit of our “authentic selves.” Its literature stresses vague cliches, encouraging readers to challenge “virtually everything” and “wipe the slate clean and start over.” Phrases like these could be helpful — or at least harmless — if people did not use them in place of science-based psychological evidence.

Concepts from “popular psychology” will be defined here as psychological theories that appear simplistic, out of date, unfounded, or misunderstood. They include persistent ideas like “people only use 10 percent of their brains,” “opposites attract,” and “it’s better to express anger than to hold it in.” Wayne Dyer, author of “Real Magic” and “Your Sacred Self,” and Dr. Phil (McGraw), author of “Self Matters: Creating Your Life From the Inside Out,” are leaders of the “honor your authentic self” spirit of mental health. Thanks to these celebrity “psychologists,” many Americans feel empowered to tackle their depression, toxic relationships and other destructive habits with the sheer force of their independence, individuality and can-do attitude.

The result of these larger influences is a student culture that promotes a skewed perception of what constitutes good mental health. We hold up certain “principles” for well-being that are almost as unhelpful as they are shallow. Who hasn’t seen some “inspirational” meme online which states a vague, common-sense notion like “love yourself”? Take a recent online post by Active Minds, Inc., a national non-profit dedicated to raising student awareness of mental health. In a stunning display of pop psychology, it quotes an anonymous source: “This is my life, my choices, my mistakes and my lessons. As long as I’m not hurting people, I need not worry what they think of me.” “Say it, and then say it again!” Active Minds adds supportively.

It’s a nice sentiment, but it offers little practical advice. The source’s “choices” and “mistakes” — which could fall virtually anywhere on the spectrum from healthy to harmful — are given one limit: “not hurting people.” For a student trying to manage his fury after, say, getting cut off in traffic the message proves irrelevant. Obviously he should not track the driver down to do bodily harm, but where is the advice for addressing his irrational anger? Active Minds’ post says nothing about effective mental strategies for diffusing rage, such as self-distraction from the angry thoughts or brainstorming mitigating reasons the driver might have cut him off (e.g. “he’s probably late for work”). Such pop psychology messages only hint at meanings instead of giving technical information with more substance. And as if the statement were a satisfactory manner of approaching mental health, Active Minds stresses to “say it again.”

If an organization dedicated to student awareness of mental health uses pop psychology as its main message, what chance do individual students have? At our university, meaningful day-to-day conversation about mental health appears mostly restricted to sentiments of the “honor your authentic self” flavor. It’s as if owning your problems is enough to make them disappear.

So what are better approaches for you to maintain your mental health? For managing depression, a method called “cognitive therapy” offers explicit, habit-based strategies. Cognitive therapy is widely practiced in clinical psychology, and works from the assumption that negative emotions can be overcome by changing dysfunctional thinking, behavior and emotional responses. The effectiveness of its tactics — verified by psychological research — are supported by cutting-edge neuroscience as well.

For example, a popular piece of depression-related advice I’ve noticed in social media simply states “don’t give up.” A more helpful approach might be the route of cognitive therapy, teaching people how to combat depressive thought habits like “all-or-nothing thinking” or “disqualifying the positive” (treating positive events as if they do not count). Compared with the shallow, unsupported sentiments of positive psychology, it’s clear that such clinical advice is more practical and ultimately more effective.

Sustained mental health cannot be reduced to merely cultivating independence. Rather, it requires that we build certain habits of thought and behavior into our day-to-day lives. And it also means checking that these habits stay consistent with the latest empirical data, should research change. Perhaps you are inclined to take the “authentic self” idea as a personal motto. But acknowledge it for what it is — a general rule of thumb and not a statement on what constitutes a healthy mental life. Like managing nutrition or resting heart rate, the upkeep of a healthy brain benefits from the finest science available.

George Knaysi is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. His columns run on Tuesdays. This column is the second part of a four-part series examining mental health at the University.