Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

CHAPTER 73
Desperately Seeking Psyche I: The Lost
Soul of Psychology and Mental Disorder
of Education
MOLLY QUINN
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Emerson
A mind too active is no mind at all. Roethke
Long ago, in a kingdom far away, there lived a king and queen who had three daughters. The
royal couple was most fortunate in that the gods had endowed each maiden with the gift of
beauty. Still, while the eldest two possessed wit and charm and intelligence, it was the third
and youngest daughter who was by far the fairest of them all. The light of her countenance,
her gentle radiance, her ethereal beauty, inspired all who met her. Her name was Psyche ...
Introductory Re-telling, Myth of Psyche
The study of educational psychology rarely, if ever, incites the inspiration of poets, introduces
the insight of philosophers, or includes the illumination of myths. Yet, such is at the heart of
understanding what it means to be human, of gleaning knowledge of the human mind, of glimpsing
the nature of the human condition—and through such, grasping truths about human growth and
action, and how these might be most fruitfully fostered in this work we call education. But why,
then, doesn’t this field of study reach, more than not, this heart of things? And must it—is that
its proper work and address? If not, what is? And what does it, in fact, or what should it, incite?
Herein we raise questions both about the problems and possibilities inherent to this enterprise
we call educational psychology. Here, let us seek its promise of insight and illumination by first
exploring and addressing some of its fundamental problems.
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
The term is rigid and dry, cerebral and serious, its work subject to and structured by legitimization
but principally through the cold calibrations of a hard science in what appears to be its most
linear, logical, empirical, and positive (or instrumental) sense. At least, we think, its contributions
are sound; we can rely upon them. The hard, objective, unengaging edges of this field of inquiry