A Love Letter to Psychology (Kinda)

All throughout middle school and high school, I searched for a subject in school that truly resonated with me. I waited for a topic to click, something that I wouldn’t just understand, but actually excel at. As I watched my friends all find their strengths in math, biology, and history, I started to feel hopeless. I wasn’t the best student; I struggled with horrible test anxiety, and I always felt as though the school system and the way our education system operated was not built for someone like me. Most subjects in school felt so meaningless and disconnected from the real world. 

That was, until I discovered psychology. 

I took AP psychology my senior year of high school- and as dramatic as this may sound- everything changed for me when I walked into that classroom. For the first time in my life, I connected with the material in school. It was riveting, being able to apply my knowledge to the real world. I loved being able to associate psychology terms to actual events in my life. The self-fulfilling prophecy, attachment theory, different kinds of love- these aren’t just academic concepts. I felt so in touch with the material, which was something I had been deprived of for my entire educational career. AP psych was the first AP exam that I earned a perfect score on. Not only did I know that psychology was what I wanted to pursue in college, but I realized this passion extends far beyond academics, and I needed to embrace it. 

I write this now having completed my first year of college as a psychology major. I still wholeheartedly love psychology, and I continue to feel very connected to the field. However, the more I learn about the field, the more complicated my relationship with psychology gets. Given the state of our world, there is no doubt in my mind that counseling will never die out as a profession. I think that people need licensed professionals more now than ever before. But what exactly does that mean for the new generation of therapists that are just now entering the field of psychology and learning about all of its faults?

One of the first things I noticed when I started my psychology classes was the lack of diversity. My university, Arizona State, is advertised as one of the most diverse schools in the nation. I had thought ASU’s diversity factor would extend to the curriculum and the classes. I was extremely disappointed to learn that psychology is very White, Western, and male-focused, and the structure of my psychology classes was centered around very outdated ideologies. I wanted to hear stories of people of color, and I desperately wanted to learn about current events and studies in psychology. I started to question the relevance of what I was being taught and how beneficial it would be to me in a therapy room with a patient. It took me a while to realize that psychology is not as universal as it is advertised.

That needs to change. 

Honestly, I really just want to feel included. I want to see my culture represented in this field. My parents often remind me how they’d never even heard of psychology as a profession until I started studying it. They grew up in India, where psychology continues to be irrelevant and hardly studied as a career path. The lack of mental health care and advocacy in South Asian countries motivates me everyday. I realized that I need to be the representation that I desire so strongly. 

I personally do not enjoy talking about AI, but I am going to take a moment to do so too. Recently, the use of ChatPT and other AI platforms as therapeutic and mental health outlets has become all too common, which saddens and enrages me tremendously. Therapy is all about human connection; people come to therapy to discuss their very human emotions and experiences, which is something that objectively a machine will never be able to strip away. AI can indeed provide some tools and guidance; however, I wholeheartedly believe that AI will never be able to actually replace real therapy. This notion, though, of people using ChatGPT as their therapist, drives me to want to be something that a machine could never replace. When I do eventually get my license, I have to be able to provide my clients with the best form of human therapy as I possibly can. It saddens me that people today would choose artificial connection over real human interaction. 

The last major concern I have about entering this field is far more personal. I am an extraordinarily opinionated person and there are times where I am very pessimistic about life, especially because of how dehumanizing and destructive society has become. Sometimes I wonder if I will be able to remain neutral about a certain situation in therapy or help guide a patient in a positive direction, and I have doubts about being able to treat a client with polar opposite opinions as I do. I am realizing though, as I write this, that these hesitations are what make me human and are in fact what separate me from AI. They make me stronger and more resilient- qualities that will eventually help me become a well-rounded, capable clinician. 

In these moments of conflict and hesitation towards becoming a therapist, I am reminded why it is crucial that we continue to develop and evolve our conversations and our practice. Psychology has the potential to be so much more than it is now, and in order to do so, it is pertinent that people vocalize their hesitations and the change they want to see in this field. Psychology and counseling is far from perfect, which is possibly what makes the field so appealing to me. I am able to see how much room there is for growth and how deep of an impact I have the ability to make in the field. My relationship with psychology possesses multitudes of both love and hate, making it abundantly complicated and extraordinarily frustrating at times.

But I’m learning to accept that that’s okay. 

Love,

Harshita