Everyday Heroism in Practicing Psychology

Abstract

Heroism requires acting altruistically in the face of considerable risk. Professions such as psychology are based on working toward a public good and accordingly provide offsetting privileges for the sacrifices expected. Consequently, psychologists occasionally face professional dilemmas that provide everyday heroic opportunities. Examples of such opportunities during one psychologist's career path are presented and implications for others in the profession are explored. These are put into the context of heroism as a transpersonal act that can be based on self-expansiveness in which someone goes beyond identifying with their self as an isolated entity and, instead, experiences a sense of interconnectedness with others, the world, and even the cosmos.

The Metamorphosis of the Hero: Principles, Processes, and Purpose

“…Psychologists have called this state self-actualization (Maslow, 1943), the condition of well-being that allows people to flourish (Seligman, 2011), the achievement of “bliss” (Campbell, 1988), and the experience eudaimonia (Franco et al, 2016). From their journey, heroes accumulate wisdom about their place in the world; they acquire the courage to face their deepest fears; they connect with all of humanity; they seek justice no matter the cost to themselves; they show humility; and they embark on a journey that “opens the world so that it becomes transparent to something that is beyond speech, beyond words, in short, to what we call transcendence” (Campbell, 2014, p. 40; see also Friedman, 2017). The wisdom of writers and philosophers, from Homer in 800 BCE to Phil Zimbardo today, informs us that we are all called to lead a heroic life.…”

“…No longer psychologically isolated from the world, the transformed person enjoys a sense of communion with others. In his description of the hero’s journey, Campbell (1949, p. 25) wrote, “where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” Friedman (2017) has introduced the construct of self-expansiveness describing how boundaries between ourselves and others, and even between ourselves and the world, can be seen as permeable. As Friedman puts it, “viewing others as an alternate manifestation of oneself can promote heroism, as one’s individual life is not viewed as separate” (p. 15).…”

“…She is a self-centered, prideful individual whose sole preoccupation is establishing her identity, her career, and her material world. The entire point of her hero journey is to awaken her to the broader goal of thinking beyond herself in achieving communion with the entire world and universe (Friedman, 2017). To the extent that we spend the first stages of our lives selfishly building our personal identities and careers, we may be designed to awaken in later stages to our original predisposition toward sociocentricity (Rohr, 2011b).…”

Implications of Debunking the “Critical Positivity Ratio” for Humanistic Psychology: Introduction to Special Issue

“…The articles in this special issue address this possibility for reconciliation and also show how responsible approaches to using nonlinear dynamic systems can be appropriately incorporated into humanistic psychology, as well as how positive psychology can avoid future blunders involving advocating for bogus findings such as the critical positivity ratio. Science is a self-correcting endeavor, and our hope is that positive psychologists will see this baby’s smudge (again using the metaphor employed by Fredrickson, 2013a ) as a learning experience, rather than an affront, as both subdisciplines have much good yet to accomplish in the world; but it takes humility ( Leary et al, 2017 ), and perhaps even heroic courage ( Friedman, 2017 ), to honestly admit and learn from painful mistakes.…”

Working with psychology journal editors to correct problems in the scientific literature.

“…Not only are rewards sparse for people who take it upon themselves to help science this way, but debunkers are also often subject to harsh counterattacks. One of us (Harris L. Friedman) has characterized the willingness to offer criticisms of powerful people's work as part of everyday heroism as a psychologist because one can choose to do the right thing at great peril (which is heroism) or simply turn a blind eye (Friedman, 2018). This dilemma is especially apt during early career stages when one might be more vulnerable to attack (e.g., before tenure for academics) because of the challenged individual's network of power and influence, which is often far reaching within academia.…”