Do you like Psychological Astrology?

Question

Do you like Psychological Astrology?

Answer 1

You should have added more details to this question.

Answer 2

This is a purely personal opinion based on personal experience, but the short answer is: No.  What is often called "psychological astrology" is more appropriately named 'armchair psychological astrology," or "pop-psychological" astrology.  It taps into all the cliches we find on Oprah, and in Cosmo, and the never ending stream of self help books.  It rarely gets more profound than that.  But some people are willing to spend a bit of money for an hour to hour and a half devoted solely  to themselves and where they can hear they are more sensitive than most people realize, their faults are really quite endearing and all the bad things that ever happened to them or ever will happen to them are the fault of the parents.

They bring up Jung, and at times Freud, but very little is devoted to any in depth analysis of human behavior.  And there is the real problem with the study.  It is a lot closer to psycho-therapy than it is to psychology.  Psychology is the legitimate study of human behavior.  Psychotherapy is designed to help people with emotional difficulties.  Psychological astrology is closer to the latter.  Oh they protest that they are not performing therapy (and they're not), but they aren't studying human behavior either.

They talk about archetypes and mythology and a lot of new age mumbo-jumbo, but very little gets done, unless the client has something specific in mind such as a suitable profession.  Then they're told they'd be good at helping people.  

I had such a reading once.  I still have it on tape.  It is, frankly, useless. What was most memorable about it was the claim that I should be self employed because I have Uranus in the 10th house.  Trust me, there are few people on earth less suitable for self employment than I am.  

I also paid a decent amount for a computer reading from the Queen of Psychological astrology Liz Greene.  Now it's a computer reading and I didn't expect much despite what the ad said, but even though they got the birth data right, that report described a human being I've never met or even heard of.

Anecdotes prove nothing, but I've read and still own an awful lot of those books by all the authors that are famous (that means "well known" it does not mean "competent")  They make all sorts of claims mostly wildly general.  One famous individual teaches his students that Saturn retrograde in the chart means the native has feelings of inferiority due to an absent, authoritative, or emotionally distant father or father figure. Deep.

The problem is that Saturn is retrograde about one-third of the year and almost everyone's father is authoritative and emotionally distant and we all have feelings of inferiority.  I didn't know this, and whenever I used those words during a reading, I got all this positive feedback. "Boy am I good," I recall thinking.  But it got ridiculous.  I always hit a nerve.  I mean I never missed.  Nobody is that good.  I tried a little test - very informal.  I used the same line no matter if Saturn was retrograde or direct. And I was still batting 1000 until I ticked off one woman who thought I was insulting her father. OK I'll take .999.  The point is all this astrologer did was tap into a near universal experience.  Bah humbug.  I went elsewhere and found the good stuff.  In my often less than humble opinion, psychological astrology is a poor imitation of the real thing.

Edit:  Isabelle,

>Numerous clients felt understood and relieved etc......<

Thanks for writing.  People can and do feel understood and relieved after talking to their bartender.  I don't know that the psychological astrologer does much more.

Answer 3

I studied psychological astrology and enjoy it.

Answer 4

I do.  It's better than a f***y pack.

Answer 5

I disagree with Tom but he has his own opinion.

I know Liz Greene 's reports can get over the top..sometimes. Too much idealisation.

I do not blame him though.....I have encountered the same : Is that me ??? boy aren't I great lol ! people looking for quick bucks.

Sorry........Psychological Astrology ( for the very adept ones..which I am not) is SO helpful. Most have already and graduated in psychology etc anyway. Practitioners speaking.

Numerous clients felt understood and relieved etc......whereas they would have been sent to the loony bin by some psychologists ( do they all agree also ?? course not!!)

Psychogical Analysis Astrology is so different from mainstream astrology/horoscopes.

A psychologist will not guess what bothers you right ?? you have to tell him/her..........a astrologer will pinpoint the problem......without asking lol ! Less time, less  bucks spent..more understanding. And nothing is either totally black and white like a list of syndroms like the DMV stg......

lots more understanding........etc//

have to stop here tonight. Have to go. !!!

@Tom : if somebody told you that because you have Uranus in the 10th house you are bound to be self-employed.......that is so wrong ! or like anybody considering one house only. 10th house : status... You drag your whole chart with you and it is up to the person how to deal with it. They are way too many factors to be so simplistic and aspects can manifest themselves in many different ways. They have to offer numerous possibilities and ideally a one on one "interview" and look at your past etc etc etc.

And I agree with you.........I do not pay much attention to retrograde this and that.......it can easily lead people to believe in things which simply do not exist. Or blame : boy Saturn is in my 11 house...no wonder etc.

you are in charge of your chart and hopefully not the way around.

@Tom again:  that is OK the way you feel. I do not really understand your point about psychology and psychotherapy though. Right a bit dumb and tired at night..

But some people REALLY feel great after being validated. Most often so when you discover something in their chart before they even had the chance to tell you so. They do feel greatly relieved and "oh am not that crazy after all ? ".

But with the good comes along the bad .....and most people do not WANT to hear about it or reject it as rubbish. Normal human behaviour and we all are guilty of this. Being in denial makes life easier.........and perhaps sometimes ..why not ?

But what is clearly missing most in this section though is " I have this problem.......what can be done ?" which goes further than simple astrological profiling but instead starts to dwelve on suggesting solutions.....mind you , on the other hand I do not think that y/a will ever really deal with that because charts would need to be disclosed , which I do not think is a good idea, as well as other info about the person ( one person in India can't be offered the same advice as an America..different backgrounds, status,  religions, past experiences etc etc).

Archetypes represent fundamental truths about the human nature. What is missing also is that some people ONLY read about astrology and nothing else. I picked up a book tonight about description of sun signs and they always seem to apply to caucasians only........don't other races exist at all ? I think ideally people should have more that one interest and that helps a lot. Understanding other cultures, their taboos, dos and don'ts...

Your criticism is valid because - my opinion only -  I share some of your thoughts actually. I do not dwell on south and north nodes etc........those last a long time like retrograde planets but some people make a big deal out of it. And where is the PROOF really ?

If  you would not mind citing which authors you read  I would appreciate it. Healthy criticism is always necessary.

Some authors are clearly at odds on some points with others so .......up the person ultimately to make up their mind. Of course we all have a tendency to accept and reject what pleases us or not.

Some people want to make this section "serious" but am afraid it will never be so. Only a one to one contact with a person can work appropriately.

LOL at your point about the bartender.......in a way that can be true...some people do not need extensive knowledge to give sound advice......true enough. There is a distinction between academic knowledge and emotional intelligence and the latter one is not acquired through books.

....I used to tend bars actually............must have given some really crappy advice to some people though :-)

Answer 6

Most famous Astrologer are best in human psychology,they know people comes to him,what they want,they predict on wave length of them.

Most of people comes to Astrologer to asked there problems on which they are suspicious,they lost his confidence for his judgement on particularly point the want a support to gain it again.

So as Doctor assure us by his confidence as do a Artologer also.

-Sudan