The Psychology of Becoming

“We can give a voice to those less heard,
explore where others turn away,
and rigorously challenge those in power.^{" -} The Guardian

We take for granted that everyone who becomes a “scholar” in a particular discipline would have acquired some kind of education in said field, looking to partake in a search for answers we don't have or are not certain of. Yet, if said scholar spends the majority of time reading things specifically related to his or her discipline of study and conversing with others who read the same, then said scholar is going to just replicate the mainstream "knowledge" we already have.

Now, if - for starters - half of the things said scholar reads and has conversations about are from outside his or her field, many innovative ideas would come from elsewhere and/or the discipline's margins the scholar is becoming a part of:

"If you look at the works that have been influential historically, you can tell by the index or bibliography that the author has been reading a lot of things that are outside the normal range of standard, mainstream work." Theory Talk #38: James Scott

This is particularly obvious when - let's say - we SEE how issues of poverty, climate change and capitalism overlap, intertwine, correlate ... with mental health:

“We are challenging the medical profession to acknowledge the world we are inheriting. Schools and universities aren’t considering how climate change will affect people, from a medical or a psychological perspective, so we are not training a new generation of medical professionals to help people in a fast-changing planet and this is intolerable. We are moving too slowly on this.” - The Guardian

Otherwise, said scholar's search for answers would be more alienated labor than work done inline with ALL that is at stake. If a scholar wants to understand the ins and outs of - for instance - the discipline of psychology, he or she has to be concerned with everything else:

"Cancel my subscription to the Resurrection
Send my credentials to the House of Detention
I got some friends inside" - The Doors: When the Music's Over