Sherlock’s popularity is hard to argue with. Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle penned his first story of Sherlock in 1887, Sherlock’s style, methods, charisma, and oddities have swept us up.
The abstract for Richard Kellogg’s article states:
More interest and enthusiasm may be generated for basic psychological concepts if the teacher engages the famous detective as a consultant. (Kellogg 1980)
Kellogg is saying that Sherlock can be a model for us to adopt to teach others about basic psychological concepts of problem-solving and human behaviour. In this article, Kellogg pulls examples from Doyle’s stories to illustrate that Sherlock’s skills are 7 primary things: deduction, memorization, perception, specialized training, emotional influence, creative insight, and divergent thinking. I recommend this article for its ability to highlight these features in Sherlock’s personality and problem-solving skills. What Kellogg does not do well is explain the “model” he speaks of or how it’s applicable to modern educators and students.
My previous grad degree primarily involved text criticism, so my appreciation of what Kellogg is trying to do, namely blending the work of a literary scholar and connecting it forpsychology, is something I would also attempt and likely will in the future 🙃.
The humanities are interconnected piles of ideas and influences that weave in and out of each other; one string may start in literature but also weave through psychology or history. This thought is nothing new, I’m aware. I get reminded more and more that our current age has lost the nuanced power of connectivity that the Humanities once held in society. I care a lot about re-capturing this nuance in my own life and professionally. I struggled for many years trying to choose which direction in life to take in order to pursue this goal - literature? philosophy? religious studies? psychology? I’m grateful to feel more settled in my current pursuit ofpsychotherapy as I see it touching on all of those previous directions that interested me. When push comes to shove, I care about helping others along their journey.