Macro and Microphenomenology - by Max Goodbird - Superb Owl
For centuries, physics consisted of domain-specific models for human-scale phenomena: falling objects, acoustics, the movement of the stars, and the like. Deeper questions about the origins and extent of the universe, or about its fundamental building blocks, were relegated to philosophers and theologians.
But the discovery of a general framework for mechanics gave rise to particle physics and cosmology. Science found it had the tools to explore even the largest and smallest scales of reality.
Psychology seems to be following a similar trajectory. We have a thousand models for practical phenomena, like emotions, personality types, and psychopathologies. But increasingly scientists and psychonauts are learning to study the atoms of experience, and exploring exotic corners of the mental landscape.
Most of contemporary psychology consists of small, overlapping models of mental life. These range from scientific (e.g. the diagnostic criteria in the DSM, neurochemical descriptions of psychoactive drugs), to fuzzy-but-useful (e.g. Myers-Briggs personality types, mood wheels).
