When developmental psychologist J.D. Haltigan witnessed the ideological transformation of academia around 2016, he faced a stark choice: conform to increasingly rigid dogma or risk his career by speaking out. His decision to maintain intellectual integrity offers viewers a rare insider's perspective on psychology's capture by activist ideology. In this compelling conversation, Haltigan reveals how the field has abandoned scientific rigor, why mental health categories are being deliberately deconstructed, and the alarming consequences for children developing their identities in digital echo chambers.
About Dr. J.D. Haltigan
J.D. Haltigan is a developmental psychologist whose academic journey took him from a PhD at the University of Miami to postdoctoral positions at several institutions including Illinois, North Carolina, and in Canada at the Universities of Ottawa and Toronto. Currently teaching statistics part-time at Miami while conducting independent research, his background includes significant clinical experience:
"Prior to that, I had done a lot of work in residential treatment, so working with disordered youth who were sort of, you know, in residential treatment by court order. And then I, you know, after that I did my PhD and I was always interested more in the background of the development of problem behavior."
The Moment Academia Lost Its Mind
Haltigan pinpoints 2016 as the watershed moment when "woke just took over academia," providing a vivid firsthand account of watching this transformation unfold:
"I remember distinctly, you know, being in Ottawa in my apartment watching CNN, just totally morphed from a normal cable news outlet to completely bonkers. And I was saying to myself, this is insane. And it was kind of mirroring what I was experiencing in the halls of academia."
The situation deteriorated further after 2020:
"Right around 2016 is really sort of when woke just took over academia. And then in 2020, it just got totally bonkers with COVID and the George Floyd incident in Minnesota. It just, it lost its mind. Academia did."
This ideological capture has profound consequences documented by scholars studying the replication crisis in psychology:
"It's damaging to the field because what's happened in my view is the field is no longer considered legitimate by the public and the population, they don't care anymore."
The Feminization of Psychology
One of Haltigan's more controversial observations concerns what he describes as the "feminization" of psychology, particularly in developmental fields:
"In developmental psych in particular, it was very feminine. I didn't really appreciate this at the time time, but I was the only sort of male doing research on infants and babies."
He argues this demographic shift created environments where certain personality types and viewpoints became overwhelmingly dominant:
"You just have an overabundance of a certain personality configuration that tracks with a more sort of leftist orientation to compassion and, and sort of this notion of empathy. And so you end up with ideological capture because the personality types that track with social sciences, particularly psychology."
This perspective connects to documented gender disparities in psychology, where women make up approximately 70% of new PhDs in the field.
From Destigmatization to Pathology Normalization
Haltigan articulates how well-intentioned efforts to reduce mental health stigma have morphed into something more troubling:
"The destigmatization of what I see as personality Psychopathology is becoming de facto normalization of psychopathology."
He argues that some behaviors within transgender communities cannot be normalized:
"In some of these different transgender personalities, there really is deviant reckless sexual behavior. And you can't call it anything else but that you can't normalize that, because that's part of the fundamental problem with these individuals."
This connects to his critique of the movement away from categorical diagnoses toward dimensional understandings in the DSM-5:
"Most of the public is not aware that mental illness is not a categorical phenomenon. It is a dimensional phenomenon. And by that I simply mean that mental illness is not in nature categorical. You don't have depression or not."
He sees this as part of a larger ideological project:
"This is really getting to the leftist ideological capture issue, because at the heart of what some of these leftists don't like is the constraint that categories place on behavior. And they want to totally deconstruct all categorical labeling."
Growing Up Online: The Digital Generation
The conversation explores how excessive screen time fundamentally alters child development. Haltigan references Sherry Turkle's prescient 1995 book Life on the Screen:
"In 1995, Sherry Turkle wrote a very prominent book, Life on the Screen. And I recently read the book in full and she really was very prescient in and really seeing what was happening."
He contrasts today's online childhoods with earlier generations:
"The latchkey kid of the 70s and 80s would come home, no parents would potentially be there and they might have tv, but more often than not the latchkey kid would just go out and play baseball or get into trouble in the neighborhood. And in some sense that was better than going online and creating these multiple shape shifting identities."
Stella O'Malley introduces the concept of children becoming "feral online":
"They were effectively given a device at a very young age and they glued onto that device and they raised themselves online... They're incredibly sophisticated online, but they're clueless in real life."
This phenomenon connects to research on digital natives and studies showing how screen time affects development.
Finding Freedom Outside the Institution
Despite the challenges of working outside traditional academia, Haltigan has found new intellectual freedom and collaborations, including with Jordan Peterson.
"Jordan found me on X. I mean, I think that's the value of X. I found you on X. I mean, speaking out, people are listening. They might not TW back at you or, you know, say hey or DM you, but they're. They're seeing what you say."
He describes how this connection developed:
"I was on his wife's podcast and then went on his podcast, much like I'm doing now. And that's led to a little bit of collaboration, which is forming the basis for some forthcoming work."
He believes the future of credible expertise may shift away from traditional institutions toward independent voices:
"The public is going to really sort of place their trust in people who speak to them truthfully. And I think, you know, it's no longer going to be the institution."
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