Can psychology still be the basis of society?

Our reality and culture are built on how we have chosen to look at people: how they function and why they do what they do. That foundation comes from psychology as it has developed over the past one and a half centuries. Its core assumption is that human beings regulate themselves through thinking. First observation, then reflection, insight and understanding, followed by choices and then behavior. Consciousness takes precedence over autonomous processes. This idea is embedded in all our systems: healthcare, education, work, policy, parenting, legislation. Human beings are viewed as consciously steerable, with consciousness in the lead.

This belief did not arise out of nowhere. It emerged from the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, periods in which faith in human malleability and a fixed norm of functioning was central. People came to be judged as human beings on the basis of their behavior and capacity to adapt. Behavior that falls outside this norm has been, and continues to be, structurally classified as disorder. Today this takes the form of DSM diagnoses, because only a diagnosis grants access to reimbursement for care that is accepted by the system. This logic still forms the foundation of almost everything we organize and control.

Consequences for society and individual neurobiology

This split produces a great deal of harm. People who do not naturally fit within the norm, and who cannot (or do not want to) force themselves into it, are punished, pushed, labeled, and excluded by our systems. Adaptation becomes mandatory in order to be accepted as human, and failure to do so is framed as a personal shortcoming. These assumptions were long treated as fact, simply because there was no alternative. Behavior was the only thing that could be observed, and so it came to be interpreted as the truth of who someone is.

Since we have been able to study the inside of the brain, it has become clear that this model rests on faulty assumptions. Neurobiological research shows how differently brains can be organized, and how internal hierarchy shifts as soon as threat is perceived. This knowledge does not align with classical psychological assumptions, yet psychology in that form still constitutes the standard within mainstream mental healthcare.

Psychology effectively operates with only one type of brain: the safe, integrated brain. Not the brain that has never known safety and has had to organize itself around survival and protection. In that case, neurobiological functioning is governed by the survival brain, operating pre- and subconsciously, severing connections with higher brain regions as soon as something is perceived as threatening. Action becomes necessary, and thinking takes too long. As a result, a person cannot remain present, reality is perceived differently, the sense of self becomes disrupted, time collapses, and the past intrudes into the present. This occurs within milliseconds and entirely autonomously, outside conscious awareness.

Societal systems that judge

People seek help because they cannot control these processes, because they are stuck in them and feel powerless in relation to them. They experience a lack of control because the survival system acts preconsciously according to old patterns. Psychology then asks them to develop new patterns of thinking and behavioral choices, while the brain regions required for this either lack connectivity or were never developed. The result is that these methods fail to produce lasting effects, particularly in people with developmental trauma.

Our society is structured around a model of the human being that is only achievable for those who experienced sufficient safety from early childhood onward. A large part of the population does not live in that state. Yet everyone is judged according to the same norm. This leads to widespread rejection, further dysregulation, and renewed trauma. Rejection from the past continues to repeat itself in the present through societal systems. The growing number of diagnoses is a logical outcome of a system that does not correct itself, but instead holds the individual personally responsible for something they cannot do.

The Control Paradox

This makes the question of whether psychology, in its current form, is meaningful unavoidable. An approach that relies entirely on thinking and willpower is inadequate when the survival system is active. This is especially true in mental healthcare, where precisely this population is central. A traumatized brain does not come to regulation through cognitive instructions. The foundation of our model of the human being must be adjusted to what modern neurobiology has been showing for decades.

Why does this not happen? Because clinging to what is familiar is itself a survival response, driven by fear of losing predictability and therefore control. Few people are willing to acknowledge that the foundation on which their sense of truth and stability rests is flawed. Moreover, societal systems are so deeply intertwined with psychology that changing them and reorganizing them around diversity rather than standardization seems impossible.

Underlying all of this is the same human fear: failure, rejection, and loss of connection with others. Polarization and standardization feel like control because they increase predictability. As a result, systems become increasingly rigid when diversity proves difficult to regulate. More rules, protocols, and standards emerge, even though the human being is not a static object. Humans are biological entities in constant change, and they require room for movement. Our brains evolved to adapt, not to be confined within a concept of how a human being is supposed to function.