Rasheed

How to Self-Educate Myself Into Psychology?

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So, my major is psychology in university but since formal educational system is wea and self-education is where true learning can be found. I want to go this way as well: https://www.actualized.org/insights/going-full-autodidact

My question is: - Is reading book from Leo's book list enough for psychology?

What are other books I must read for this purpose? 


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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I haven’t seen Leo’s book list but no, you will probably want to read dense academic works on psychology 

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What do you want it for?

If you want to become a therapist, university is needed.

If you want to learn about psychological topics, then read books and contemplate yourself things like emotions, mind, awareness, cognition, etc.

Edited by UnbornTao

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5 hours ago, Rasheed said:

My question is: - Is reading book from Leo's book list enough for psychology?

Enough? Lol. Reading Leo’s entire booklist is only the beginning of self-education. Aim beyond the booklist, which means you first have to read the booklist. You only grow relative to the quality of your aims. If you aim for enough, you will hit that. If you aim for extraordinary and exceptional then you will hit that too.


Meditation is a lifestyle of developing a calm state of mind WHILE engaging in one’s ambitions!

Counting your breaths, chanting a mantra, and the rest of it is all ratshit and a complete waste of time. What is stopping you from meditating WHILE working on your life purpose?

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1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

What do you want it for?

If you want to become a therapist, university is needed.

If you want to learn about psychological topics, then read books and contemplate yourself things like emotions, mind, awareness, cognition, etc.

I am going to university as well but I do not want to stop there, I want to take thing deeper like Leo says in his post.


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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On 7/20/2022 at 3:59 PM, Rasheed said:

I am going to university as well but I do not want to stop there, I want to take thing deeper like Leo says in his post.

In that case then, I think his booklist plus contemplation are enough, yes.

Also include the Actualized video catalogue, if you want.

Edited by UnbornTao

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Leo's book list will take you well beyond psychology. There are also some pretty good psychology books on there. 

You could use Leo's reading list and your university courses for the next few years. You will begin to find more and more books as you learn more as well and you can add them to your personal reading list. 


 "Unburdened and Becoming" - Bon Iver

                            ◭"89"

                  

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A bonus is as you get older:

1. Trip safely and plan to do many trips

2. Meditate everyday 30mins to an hour

3. Begin a contemplation practice

4. Begin developing your common place book

5. Watch Leo's Epistemology videos 

 

You can also explore mind body practices like Breathwork, Qigong and Yoga. Study the practice of embodiment as well. 

In terms of Psychology, you can develop a big picture understanding of the field and then begin integrating it with spiritual topics. You can also learn about Maslow's Work I think would be really valuable. Study system thinking, Human behaviour, sexuality, bias, religion vs science, philosophy of science, Consciousness, etc 

You are probably learning about:

1. Psychoanalysis etc (the history and various fields/ development in psychology.)

2. You probably study various theories, thinkers, and paradigms

3. Cognitive Psychology 

4. Cognitive behaviour

5. Neuroscience

6. Various types of therapy

7. Polyvagal Theory 

8. You'll probably study things like how drugs work etc.

9. How to collect data and do science etc

 

You basically will want to study Psychology and really understand the paradigms surrounding you in your academic setting. On your spare time you are studying spirituality and the higher levels of understanding possible. The Books list may help you with that.   

Edited by Thought Art

 "Unburdened and Becoming" - Bon Iver

                            ◭"89"

                  

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Type "best psychology books Goodreads" in Google and you will find lists of the most popular and important works on Psychology; Go buy the top 50 books or so and that will give you a sense of what you are interested in, and most scholarly works cross-reference many other important works, this way you will quickly catch on to the core corpus and can than explore more fringe stuff of whatever you are particularly interested in.

Start with William James' "Principles of Psychology" and Bertrand Russels "History of Western Philosophy" and you will get a good sense of what youre essentially dealing with.

Edited by Nilsi

“We are most nearly ourselves when we achieve the seriousness of the child at play.” - Heraclitus

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There's a book titled "50 Psychology Classics" or something like that. You might find it useful.

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You can look at what curriculum your Psychology course will be offering.

Then you have to make a choice: whether to read stuff related to your curriculum or outside of your curriculum. Your egoic mind will tell you to do both. There you go! Read anything in Psychology and outside of Psychology!

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