On the Couch : By Dr. Richard Lustberg

An Analysis of Current Topics and Issues in Sport
August 2000

Pseudopsychology & Sports

There are major problems that are upon us in the world of sport.  Psychologically addicted fans whose testosterone levels rise and fall with victory and defeat; fathers who are murderers; little youth sport gangs; greedy media moguls and team owners; killer athletes; negligent parents, and sports figures addicted to drugs and money.  All potential reasons for the loss of our heroes and perhaps eventually the decline of society as a whole.

There seems to be no lack of pseudo experts who are out there ready and willing to help us find our way, with cliched and sometimes dangerous uninformed opinions and suggestions.   What is even more troubling about this is that every one of them thinks he is a bonafide mental health professional. 

While our society has a long history of using psychological terms in our everyday vocabulary, it has become even more apparent that they are being used more frequently and now applied in a new area.  Namely sports.   Historically, individuals who have falsely claimed psychological expertise have always bandied about various psychological terms.   At times they have called themselves mental health experts, psychics, and faith healers.

Maybe this has happened in part because we have gotten so used to the likes of the Dear Abbys and the Dr. Joyce Brothers whose genre of material are now found in Pennysavers written by aspiring ladder climbers and imitators.  And let’s not forget Dr. Laura (a modern day trail blazer if there ever was one) who offers us her pearls of wisdom and opinions on subjects ranging from gay rights to infidelity, and yes even sports.  It seems obvious that sport is the next logical place for the hoard of experts to psychologically pontificate.  Isn’t everybody capable of doing it?  Problem is the so-called experts who are currently on the playing field, to often turn out at best, to be bench players.

Journalists, broadcasters, talk show hosts, most of whom have no background in psychological research, theory or even simple insight, deem themselves qualified to ask and answer questions with opinions, or write articles designed to enlighten us on every possible topic.  Some even write books, one of which I recently sampled, written for coaches who work with children.  Although the author clearly had little if any experience dealing with children in therapeutic settings and to his credit did not purport to, it never stopped him from going beyond his boundaries.  More often than not, many sports experts lack the proper credentials to call themselves psychologists, yet feel free to mask their lack of training with a plethora of initials after their names, in an attempt to deceive an already confused public.  Thus we get answers from them that have the depth of toddlers’ wading pools, which of course is all that one should expect from them.  Simplistic, vapid, shallow solutions to our complex psycho-social problems.

Problems on and off the playing field are simply solved.  Reason calmly and talk with the child or athlete.  Use positive reinforcement and give him stickers or maybe a lollipop.   Have a nice sensible chat with the coach, or your spouse, bench or trade the player, hang the owner, or don’t watch or go to the games.  And when it comes to family problems isn’t everyone a parent?  Thus, we get advice such as fathers are too involved or are not involved enough.   Mothers should not talk shop at the soccer field, or offer coaching advice. There are even suggestions for mothers who suffer from soccer mom syndrome.   And if these suggestions don’t work, let’s not forget the old-fashioned punishment and consequences routine.  It remains a crowd favorite, and the most simplistic of all answers.  Punishments are embedded in our psyches as simple solutions for children’s behaviors, which is sort of like the psychological equivalent of ice cream, mom and apple pie.  These are just a few of the answers we get from these experts, as they dispense advice like penny candies dropping from an antique candy machine.

There are many reasons for what has become a farcical circus posing as science, experience, and knowledge.  As the social and personal boundaries continue to break down in this culture, and as an aggressive press reveals more details about athletes and celebrities, people are becoming more intrusive in their desire to know why others behave the way they do.  It can deflect from their own problems and many have identified with troubled athletes.  Psychological advice offered by the pundits often brings a false sense of energy and psychic life to those who would otherwise experience lethargy and despair if not for the service of these so called experts.  It becomes easy in this climate for terms such as psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, evaluation, testing, medication management, therapy, and counseling to be used out of context and without many of the program hosts or listeners really knowing what the terms mean.  All were liberally used in the cases of both John Rocker and Mike Tyson and are continuing to be used in everyday sports reporting.  Thus a vicious cycle emerges as our need for this material seems to be insatiable.  There is then continuous pressure exerted on the media to provide us with more and more material that will sell.

Blame must also be placed on those who are in the mental health field and their respective organizations who have not clearly defined for the public the differences that exist among them. They have also not done an adequate job of blowing the whistle or confronting those who choose to practice without proper training or credentials.  Perhaps they are distracted by the infighting that has gone on among them for a slice of the economic pie.  Some of the blame also needs to placed on the doorsteps of our politicians who refuse to pass bills that will help clarify for the consumer the differences between various mental health professionals.  They too profit from taking this course of action.

The myriads of scandals involving athletes, politicians, and many other professions have left us all looking for answers.  Clearly people are attempting to cope with their own personal problems and are eager and sometimes desperate for potentially bogus solutions.  Perhaps this is why we are less critical of what we are being told and accept the questionable advice we are being given.  Unfortunately, the charlatans and snake oil salesmen of the new psychological media who have offered advice and solutions are surviving and are proliferating at our expense.