Do you have issues with your dysfunctional inner child?
of 'psychobabble' was at school. Kids used to shout an abusive epithet across the playground and when some poor soul turned around to look they all cried in unison, "Complex!", as in the Freudian term 'Oedipus complex'.
As is usually the case with psychobabble it was a technical psychological term used out of context - not that I was sufficiently well-read (or stupid enough) to point that out at the time.
While this example is pretty lowbrow, psychobabble permeates all intellectual strata. Psychological discussions on the street, in print, on TV and online are filled with psychobabble, usually delivered with a straight face.
Sometimes respectable psychological terms escape from their cosy, sheltered academic homes and develop their 'babble' out in the wide world where they're ravaged by the uncultured masses and left almost unrecognisable. Other times the 'babble' is born fully-formed of various gurus, cultists, celebrities, columnists and others.
Here are a few pieces of psychobabble I currently love to hate:
- "Their brains lit up in the scanner." Parts of the brain are said to 'light up' when we remember, lie, do our taxes and, probably, go to the toilet. Surely everyone knows this is just short-hand for increased blood-flow in a certain part of the brain? Do they hell.
- "I'm alive so I must be addicted to breathing." If you do something more than twice a week it's an addiction: from sex, to video games to the internet. Are you a marketer with something to promote? Just use the word addiction and watch those headlines flood in.
- "Thank you for letting me vent." People don't talk about their emotions anymore, they 'vent'. Contrary to the psychobabble, though, people are not like steam engines.
- "You need to engage your right-brain". Refers to the purported importance of the right-side of the brain in creativity. I've moaned about this before.
- "I'm stuck at denial" (without a paddle, ha ha). A reference to Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' 'five stages of grief' which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance. Dr. Kubler-Ross never suggested one stage had to be completed before the next and there's little evidence for these stages anyway.
Send in your favourite psychobabble
These are just a few to get your bile flowing. Once you've worked yourself up sufficiently please send in your personal favourite(s). It could be psychobabble from any context: work, home, school, childhood, sport, TV - anything you like as long as it has some connection to psychology.
Then I'll publish them here as a list and we'll vote for our favourite bit of psychobabble!
Don't forget to include your name, or if you would prefer to submit anonymously then just let me know.
» You can post a comment below or email me directly. Look forward to reading them!
[Image credit: Ozyman]
译文:
心理呓语：你赞成哪种说法？
把您关于心理呓语的好事例发给我，我会为您刊载在“PsyBlog”（注：一个心理博客）上。
我关于“心理呓语”的首次实践是从学校开始的。孩子们习惯用侮辱性的绰号召唤操场对面的同伴，而可怜的家伙却答应的非常自然，“这真不可思意！”，用佛洛伊德的话说就是“俄底浦斯情结”。
心理呓语的案例通常都属于专业心理范畴，指的不是上文提到那样的因为我博览群书（或是十分愚蠢）而提出的不属于这个时代的问题。
这种范例十分浅显，但心理呓语却充斥着整个学术界。大街上，刊物上，电视上和网络上讨论的关心理问题都提到心理呓语，常常都是很严肃的提出。
受人瞩目的心理研究小组有时会远离他们舒适安逸的学科办公室, 到世界上那些被无知的人们破坏的面目全非的地方来研究他们的“呓语”，然而有时“呓语”也会成形于像印度教的导师、搞迷信的人们、名人还有专栏作家等等。
这里有一些通常让我又爱又恨的呓语例子：
“他们的大脑像启动的扫描仪那样灵光。”当我们记忆、说谎、交税，亦或是上厕所的时候，大脑的某些部分就接到“启动”的指令。那当然是因为大家都知道的血压升高而导致大脑的部分缺血，这么说对吗？
“我活着所以必须陶醉于呼吸。”如果你在一个星期内做某件事超过两次的话那么就上瘾了：比如性爱，电游和上网。您是个推销商品的商人吗？使用上瘾这个词然后看那些涌来的头条新闻吧。
“谢谢你让我发泄出来。”人们不会多谈他们的情感，他们“发泄”，否则就会呓语，当然了,人不是蒸汽机。
“你需要勤动右脑。”这是在说右半脑的创造力意义重大。我很懊恼以前没有这样。
“我为否认而感到尴尬”（那样会很无助，哈哈）。伊丽莎白.库博勒.罗斯博士的“通往悲伤的五步曲”中提到了否认、愤怒、争论、沮丧和最后的面对现实。库博勒.罗斯博士建议在下一步来临之前一定要走完这一步，那样就不会再有以后那几步的苗头了。
把您关于心理呓语的好事例发过来。
这些只导致你发火的原因里的几个而已。一旦有什么足以激怒你的话，把你关心的话题发过来。这些心理呓语的事例可能会是以下标题：工作，家庭，学校，童年，体育，电视节目——只要您觉得它与心理呓语有关联的话。
然后我会把他们以列表的形式出版，我们可以投票选出大家都关心的几条关于心理呓语的事例。
别忘了写上你的名字，或者您也可以用匿名的方式只要让我知道就可以了。
》您可以在下面评论也可以给我直接发 e-mail。期待能读到它们！
[图片：Ozyman ]
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