Wyatt Ehrenfels to Transfer Ownership

A week before Wyatt Ehrenfels leaves on a yearlong Europe trip, the social psychologist turned author made the decision to resign as chief operating officer of a blog he spent over 5 years filling with unconventional wisdom and insider information about Psychology. The move comes one week before Wyatt immerses himself in two new projects and endures a new chapter in a campaign to harass and slander fireflySun.com officers. Click here to read more about the decision to sell fireflySun.com.

FULL STORY * STATE OF CAMPAIGN ADDRESS

A Message from the New Owner

Hello, this is Dr. S. J. Adams and I am the new owner of this site. I am a licensed clinical psychologist, as well as a researcher and program evaluator.

First, I would like to offer some comments on the departure of J. Wyatt Ehrenfels. I have read his announcement, linked above. Every person must come to his own conclusions about the value of his efforts and the bases of his choices. Sometimes the clearest perspective on this comes only after time and distance from it. However, at a minimum, Wyatt presented a challenging voice to a field unwilling to challenge itself. This was needed, and appears to have had some impact.

Another achievement is that this webpage ranks between 6th and 10th on a Google search of "psychology news" (ranks apparently change periodically). This is significant. It means that this site and the ideas here have a very good chance of being read. In a world where the number of websites has only begun to explode, this is remarkable.

However, it may also speak to just how much in shambles the field of psychology is. Taking nothing away from the quality of this site, a review of other sites in the top 10 search of "psychology news" shows poor competition. If psychology wants to be taken seriously, there should be many top-quality websites that offer news, commentary, analysis, research, area for discussions, and so forth.

Psychology cannot wait for academics or politicians to advance the field. Millions, if not billions, of dollars over the past 100 years have been poured into psychological research or public mental health systems. Where are we? What can we point to and claim as a great scientific achievement? To be sure, there are achievements, and good ideas. But they exist in isolation, with no connection to a larger science that has identified fundamental principles and produced widespread effectiveness.

Psychology, at best, is a rudderless ship whose hull is leaking and masts are aflame. However, the field is not yet doomed. The damage can be repaired. But it will take those interested in its success to work outside the main channels of psychological thought as they currently exist. The creation of this website by J. Wyatt Ehrenfels has achieved this.

In terms of the direction of the site, all current pages will remain. However, I will somewhat redesign this page (although there will always be a link to this page as it stands today) and create new pages. My goal is to make this the #1 site for psychology news and commentary.

In short, Wyatt's creation will not go away, and will require only one click to find. But mine will come from my own focus and perspective on the field. To the extent it differs from Wyatt's, so will the website.

 

Stay tuned...the best is yet to come.

 

• Vaughn: "Why I Am Not a Psychologist"
• Dr. Ted: "Why I Got Out of Counseling Psych"
• Adams: "My Take On the Memo"
• C. Todd: "Three Hurdles to Tenure"
• Milliken: "Counseling as Social Construction"
• Critical Mass: fireflySun A Screed Free Zone
• Jesness: The Science of Psychotherapy