So...you're claiming that because something is certification heavy I can't be self-taught!?!?!?! Jungian psychology, freudian psychology, alchemical symbolism; ALL disciplines of personal understanding and understanding inter-personal relationships that have spanned hundreds of books on my bookshelf and years worth of self-application to become a happier more effective human being. I guess none of that was worth it because I don't know what I'm talking about!

Oy I might as well stop reading books then because claiming I'm self-taught in anything will make me look bad! No offense, but your comment made you look like you don't know what you are talking about. How can you seriously say to someone they shouldn't call themselves self-taught/educated in anything based on your criteria?

What the fuck would you call self-education then if reading books, becoming more intelligent, applying it to your life, and improving quality of said life isn't self-education? Self-education is something everyone does, even people that have been through a formal education. The difference is that they are choosing their subjects of study instead of having them chosen.

By the way, your analogy would be stronger if I laid claim to "psychiatry" rather than "psychology" - psychiatry is more akin to being a doctor; I do not ever claim to practice what I know on other people just as people that love studying physiology and medical text-books don't practice on people!

Oh, also, I was not bragging, I was qualifying myself for the commenter as someone who is self-taught so I wouldn't appear to be someone that doesn't know what they are talking about.