Radical Empiricism and Pragmatism for Health and Pluralism

William James can change your life. If James just would have sat with patients like Freud we had, initial anyway, a better form of psychoanalysis. However for those like Freud (!?!) who did not undergo therapy themselves, they would still get so much benefit struggling with the 1900s style of writing, rather long and tortuous, and realize James was ahead of his time and just reading his work would cancel out so much of the self-help literature.

Even reading some of his work not intended for mental health is worth a mental check out. His view on semantics leads to many gains in logic, communicating better with others, and establishing views less likely to lead to emotional disregulation. By understanding what we say cannot be completely conveyed to the intended recipient due to various differences in our DNA, family life, friend choices, and life experiences, we become more patient. For instance, telling someone we feel sad, if not the same as our sad feelings. There are these differences we cannot grasp. Our best way to come closer to understanding is continuing to ask more specific questions, realizing that is the best we can do. We know there is enough understanding when the other person gives is signs they were understood. By the time we understand them and they understand us there the emotions we have, have balanced out.

An additional benefit to his work is everything on radical empiricism. Understanding how to approach life that is the most effective to the thing or person you are interacting with, leads to a Pluralism and quality of life hard to surpass with other mental strategies.