Theory vs. Practice

Blog 1

September 19^th, 2015

I was listening to a ‘LateNight Podcast’ with Stephen Colbert on this last Saturday afternoon of this summer as he compared “writing comedy sketches” to the “act of performing that same sketch before a live audience.”  He compared it to the difference between studying theology and practicing religion.  

I thought about the same thing when students in my communication theory class listen to a theory but are then not challenged to connect those theories to their own methods of communicating.

There is something about studying a theory and appreciating the author’s essential ideas that can become a relatively easy task.  But applying those notions to oneself is much harder and indeed a very different task, akin to Freud’s defense mechanism of “intellectualization.”   That is the notion that we start thinking about hurt-filled experiences in our lives in the intellectual abstract to protect ourselves from the biting pain underneath. 

How often do we hear interesting ideas but fail to use them or apply them to ourselves….fit them into what the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget would call our own “schema?”

People often wonder why many therapists have so many personal problems themselves.  Or why communication professors can sometimes be the worst communicators.  Because using ideas is much harder than simply thinking about them in the abstract. What good are learning new ideas or even learning new software if we never make use of them? 

Don’t get me wrong.   There is indeed something inherently compelling about using our brains to grasp new ideas, new practices, new ways of thinking.   But studying theology without practicing some form of religious practice can simply result in a fun intellectual exercise. It lacks the meat of wrestling with our own understanding of God and of ourselves.  It fails to help us in our personal lives.  

Learning how to use Final Cut without ever making a movie can be fun, but in the end leaves one flat.   The power of the technology is in the way it allows us to express our visual and auditory ideas with others.  It is like cramming for a test for some elusive “grade” while failing to grasp why there might be any inherent value in learning the material in the first place.

We are empowered when we spend time applying insights to our lives and our relationships, when we allow ourselves the chance to express our artistic selves, when we take time to really listen to each other without launching into our own reflexive/defensive response.

Indeed that is when the real living begins. It takes practice and real intent, but ultimately making use of what we learn in some intentional way, actually leads us to intellectually develop ideas that we can develop for ourselves and share with others.