In an opinion post on Scientific American, the author points out the increasing use of Tarot Cards, Astrology and other alternative methods that are finding their way into the rooms of psychotherapists across America. The article quotes a few psychologists who don’t have an issue with it and to paraphrase them, if they are working through an issue while meditating with mercury retrograde, so be it.
The article can be found here at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/astrology-tarot-cards-and-psychotherapy/
Research into the brain and mind, I have argued on this blog and elsewhere, has yet to produce truly persuasive theories of and treatments for mental illness. As a recent essay in a British psychiatric journal argues, “it is still not possible to cite a single neuroscience or genetic finding that has been of use to the practicing psychiatrist in managing [mental] illnesses despite attempts to suggest the contrary.”
This failure helps explains why people still turn to Freudian psychoanalysis, although it does not stand up to scientific scrutiny, and to an even older mind-therapy, Buddhism. And it explains why many people in distress turn to astrology, tarot cards and other pseudoscientific methods. May they find the solace they seek.
What’s curious about all this is that there is a tendency among skeptics and believers of science to scoff at such notions as astrology, Tarot Cards or any other ‘alternative’ method. But these methods have stood the test of time. Of critical importance in understanding their resurgence and why people keep coming back to them, is to understand that we are increasingly living in a world where things don’t make sense. Sure, we understand geopolitics, we understand science, artificial intelligence and any other number of fields. But what is missing in all these is the role we play in it. By and large, people do not have a personal meaning anymore. They do not understand what their personal role in life is. So it becomes a life without meaning, where the right hand understands the global paths that are being forged but the left hand is empty, void of any particular sense of self worth, goals or meaning in life.
For this reason, when the modern world cannot give us purpose to our lives or inhibits our sense of purpose, we turn to what has worked in the past seeking some guidance. Whether that be Tarot Cards, astrology, the BaZi (Chinese Astrology) or Runes – what they all have in common is that they seek to speak to the individual and uncover his or her personal goals or destination. When we can make sense of our own personal path and purpose, it gives us self worth. That self worth translates into a meaning within us, something to work towards, to take personal charge of, instead of what most people find life is – being carried along on a wave of what everyone else is doing, working to pay bills rather than living to enjoy life. In other words, when we exit the rat race and pursue what are personal, meaningful goals to us, a lot of the complexities of life don’t bother us as much. If modern ways cannot give us that purpose, then people will turn to what has worked time and again in the past.
That’s not to say psychotherapy or any other form of modern medicine is unworthy. It is to say that the growing need for medicine to deal with the mind is a symptom of a disconnect between our personal sense of self and the world at large. In a way, people who return to the Tarot Cards, Runes or other alternative methods are self-medicating in the sense that they using the tools and resources that they know and are available to them, to overcome an obstacle in life.
If that means figuring out a living a life full of meaning, then it is to be celebrated rather than scoffed at.