One of the top comments from the post you link:
You are describing old clinical psychology. Its gotten so much better. Rorschach tests are now only a very marginal measure within psychoanalytic psychology. Psychoanalytic/pscyhodynamic psychologists are themselves outcasts from mainstream clinical psychology, which is increasingly centered around evidence-based practice. For example, behaviorists are using systematic desensitization in novel and effective ways (for treating things like panic disorder), and cognitive-behavioral therapy is quite effective in treating depression: significantly more so than antidepressants.
The important thing to remember is that patients often get the treatment they want. If you're a self-absorbed neurotic, and you want to spend an hour a week for years talking about yourself, you can find someone who will take your money. If you want effective treatment, you can find that too. Most patients don't want to get better, they want to feel like they are doing something, and especially they want to talk about themselves.
Most patients don't want to get better, they want to feel like they are doing something, and especially they want to talk about themselves.
And if people have that attitude about non-psychiatric diseases, and an MD indulges them and talks about things instead of insistingly recommending effective treatment, that MD is guilty of malpractice.
The road to the truth is paved with revelations; sometimes those revelations are uncomfortable. Also, you can never go back; it is impossible to unlearn something.
The problem is, if you go too far, those who fell behind will stop to hear your voice. You want them to be closer, and sometimes the only way to achieve it is to guide them to the truth. But the road is paved with the uncomfortable revelations. Oops.
So far, I remember two big uncomfortable revelations: the first is that we live beyond the reach of god, and the second is that the psychology isn't nearly effective as everybody thinks.
If I had been completely honest with the people around, I would have told them about House of the Cards. But I'm not. It is too cruel to say "Hey, your world-view is wrong and your competence is just an illusion" to the psychologists and soon-to-be-psychologists. Hence I'm afraid to say even innocent "Hey, I read a very interesting book yesterday" to the fellow CS students (because I don't know whether they have psychologist relatives).
This situation seems very wrong to me, but I understand that the reality is unfair and I'm lucky that I can be an atheist without fear of alienation, unlike the poor souls living in the bible belt. I'm just going to be very careful with my words concerning psychology. Of course I should be more cautious and patient while talking with strangers in *Guardian Of The Truth* mode, no surprise here.
But still.
Sometimes I wonder what I'm going to do if I really need to tell somebody that very often psychology is useless and sometimes it is even dangerous. What should I do to prevent their flinching from the truth? How to make the reality look more comfortable to them?