Review of “Real Psychology” by Dr. Scott Flagg

Score: 95+/100 (9.5+ out of 10)

Did you know that the human brain makes up only 2% of our body-weight and yet uses 20% of our total energy?

Imagine the untapped potential of the human brain!
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Real Psychology is a well-researched, well-structured, and superbly-written psychology and self-help book by Dr. Scott Flagg!

Real Psychology goes beyond being the scholarly textbook you might expect it to be, becoming much more personal and outside-the-box than you might expect. We'd almost dare to say that it ventures a bit outside the realm of normal psychology, exploring almost a spiritual or metaphysical view of how the mind works (hey, we did say this was a bit outside-the-box), possibly stemming from his interest in Buddhist and Taoist concepts like meditation and mindfulness. These practices play deeply into this book.

Indeed, Dr. Flagg, the former director of the American Institute of Parapsychology and the author of Xenopsychology, has some ideas and concepts that challenge the establishment and push the boundaries a bit.

However, it is still a book written by reputable, reliable, and time-tested source with Dr. Flagg having a rich and deep well of experience including with VA hospitals and correctional facilities. So, like Dr. Michio Kaku—a theoretical physicist known for his bold claims—Dr. Flagg is definitely someone worth hearing out.

Dr. Flagg champions several concepts including the aforementioned mindfulness and meditation. It also discusses key ideas like balancing one's emotions and thoughts, rationality, emotional moderation and decoupling, internalizing and externalizing, and discernment.

It also explores concepts like the “parental blueprint” that can either help or hinder a person's growth. A person, according to this book, can follow a parent's example or reject and deviate from it. This really got us thinking about how important it is to set a good example for your children. So many of the memoirs we read include the victims of childhood abuse and neglect, often scarring individuals long after the fact.

Flagg also talks about the “Big Five” or his “OCEAN model”:

Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

There's also the idea of the “Three Treasures”:

Essence (“Jing”)
Energy (“Qi”)
Spirit (“Shen”)

See, we said this book got a bit spiritual and metaphysical! We weren't just making it up.

There are also the “Three Jewels” of Taoism:

Compassion
Moderation
Humility

And the “Three Necessities”:

Honesty
Perspective Shifting
Willingness to Live

One of our favorite tidbits from the “Three Necessities” is Flagg's discussion of humor as a part (or reflection) of perspective shifting. When you really think about it, that really makes sense. Humor serves to dampen the harshness or negativity of an emotion or scenario. Humor can diffuse or make sense of a situation that seems violent, scary, or uncomfortable. Think about Halloween, for example. During Halloween, we dress up in scary costumes, but we do it almost playfully or mockingly, as if to thumb our noses at our fears. This is an example showing our understanding of perspective shifting as described in the book.

Flagg is a leader by example and emphasizes how therapists and psychologists should be practicing what they preach and walking the talk. He reminds readers that he actually uses techniques like mindfulness, meditation, and discernment in his own life as well as in his practice.

Really, the highlight of this entire book is the writing.

Flagg is able to take seemingly mundane concepts like mindfulness (that we've read about a hundred times before) and make them sound so beautiful and epic.

Here are some of our favorite lines:

“It is in the soil of understanding, the water of communication, and the sunlight of mutual respect that our own potential truly nourishes, transforming individual challenges into a shared journey of evolution.”

“This journey is also shaped by the cultural and social rivers in which we swim.”

Another thing we really appreciated was Flagg's concept of “dynamic energy.” Our interpretation of dynamic energy is that your body and the universe have a natural propensity or inclination to rise to the occasion. You might feel tired, beaten down, and exhausted, but you'd be shocked and surprised by what you can still accomplish with the amount of energy your body is capable of drawing from!

Lastly, we really loved the cover. It's a nominee for “Best Cover!”

Check it out on Amazon!