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Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

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Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#21

Post by PuppyTailWags »

andsoitis wrote: post #10

What do others here think about casual use of the word "crazy" in a work setting. For instance, "that's a crazy idea" or "they're crazy to think ...."

I think it's not great, especially because psychosis, bipolar, personality disorders, etc. collectively make up enough of the population that almost certainly one is speaking it in the company of people who would be called "crazy". But also it's in way more ubiquitous use than "retarded" so its a far bigger hill to climb and probably not worth the teeth-pulling until we can at least stop with OCD, ADHD-squirrel, and other jokes first.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#22

Post by ltbarcly3 »

lupire wrote: post #13
photochemsyn wrote: post #7

Looking at the headline, one might think this is another tedious guide to what (arguably) constitutes politically correct language in modern society (case example: "use 'unhoused' in favor of 'homeless'"), but it's actually a collection of well-researched and documented examples of misuse of technical terms. For example: > " Chemical imbalance . Thanks in part to the success of direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns…

I don't see the difference. Both "Politically Correct" and "Psychiatrically Correct" are addressing the same concern of misconceptions due to inaccurate or misleading language. You can be houseless but not homeless, and still need help with your housing.

This is not the case. Often the "politically correct" version is not actually more correct, but is replacing some common phrase that is declared obnoxious by some very small unrepresentative minority of people who coincidentally make their living as activists.

Yes you can be houseless but not homeless, but you can also be homeless and not houseless. It's an utterly stupid distinction predicated on an intentionally incorrect, close, and literal minded reading of the term, done for political reasons.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#23

Post by ebiester »

andsoitis wrote: post #10

What do others here think about casual use of the word "crazy" in a work setting. For instance, "that's a crazy idea" or "they're crazy to think ...."

Regardless of "wokism," it might stop meaning from being transmitted to those who do find the term problematic.

Absurd or ridiculous both capture the same meaning without losing precision. And at this point, we can look at it more as a function of deprecated terminology - people don't listen to you and think you're a bad person if you use said terminology, they just think you're old.

However, to be clear, this is off-topic for the article at hand.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#24

Post by raxxorraxor »

tantalor wrote: post #14
raxxorraxor wrote: post #4

Looks like Psychologists came up with something as complicated as the human mind. I found this very strange: Symptom: (under Oxymorons) (41) Observable symptom. This term, which appears in nearly 700 manuscripts according to Google Scholar, conflates signs with symptoms. Signs are observable features of a disorder; symptoms are unobservable features of a disorder that can only be reported by patients (Lilienfeld et a…

This has nothing to do with psychology. It's standard terminology used in medicine. > Symptoms cannot be seen and do not show up on medical tests. Some examples of symptoms are headache, fatigue, nausea, and pain. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-term...

Yes, I meant it in contrast to other languages and general language usage.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#25

Post by jamesrcole »

alexb_ wrote: post #11
andsoitis wrote: post #10

What do others here think about casual use of the word "crazy" in a work setting. For instance, "that's a crazy idea" or "they're crazy to think ...."

I think it's crazy that we spend time thinking about minor bs like this instead of spending that effort trying to solve actual problems. This type of stuff is great for people who want to feel like they have made a positive change without actually having accomplished anything of value.

I think it’s worse than that. It makes people have to police their own thought about what they’re going to say, to avoid stumbling over one of the linguistic trip wires. I think that’s antithetical to creative thought.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#26

Post by MichaelCollins »

lupire wrote: post #13
photochemsyn wrote: post #7

Looking at the headline, one might think this is another tedious guide to what (arguably) constitutes politically correct language in modern society (case example: "use 'unhoused' in favor of 'homeless'"), but it's actually a collection of well-researched and documented examples of misuse of technical terms. For example: > " Chemical imbalance . Thanks in part to the success of direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns…

I don't see the difference. Both "Politically Correct" and "Psychiatrically Correct" are addressing the same concern of misconceptions due to inaccurate or misleading language. You can be houseless but not homeless, and still need help with your housing.

Huh? If you live in a condo, you have no house but you are not homeless. A house is only one kind of shelter that can be a home, of many.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#27

Post by jrm4 »

If anything, I find this to be a, perhaps unintentional, damning indictment of psychology and psychiatry in general.

If your discipline cannot clearly define things in a reasonably concrete and provable way, such that it is readily apparent to the patients and the public at large, and also such that the language effectively clarifies itself out of necessity, then much of what you do needs to be strongly questioned -- and often not taken too seriously.

I'm reminded of e.g. the term "neurodivergent." It's a good thing to look at, but how do you falsify it? Who can stand up and say "I'm definitely not neurodivergent?" If you can't do that, the term is not very helpful.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#28

Post by ebiester »

leetrout wrote: post #2

It seems pointless, difficult and dangerous all at the same time to try to police our speech and writing. Some things have benign usage that is not harming anyone or any group of people and convey the intended meaning better than alternative words.

However, this is a list for students, teachers, and researchers, and within that context, precision is important. This group of terms in the article is not about policing - something like "crazy" or "schizophrenic". It's about technical terminology within that particular context.

It also was a good article about the problems behind the mental model.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#29

Post by cnity »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #22
lupire wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the difference. Both "Politically Correct" and "Psychiatrically Correct" are addressing the same concern of misconceptions due to inaccurate or misleading language. You can be houseless but not homeless, and still need help with your housing.

This is not the case. Often the "politically correct" version is not actually more correct, but is replacing some common phrase that is declared obnoxious by some very small unrepresentative minority of people who coincidentally make their living as activists. Yes you can be houseless but not homeless, but you can also be homeless and not houseless. It's an utterly stupid distinction predicated on an intentionally in…

You're downvoted by not far off to be honest. See also: the Euphemism Treadmill[0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Lifespan

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#30

Post by mc32 »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #22
lupire wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the difference. Both "Politically Correct" and "Psychiatrically Correct" are addressing the same concern of misconceptions due to inaccurate or misleading language. You can be houseless but not homeless, and still need help with your housing.

This is not the case. Often the "politically correct" version is not actually more correct, but is replacing some common phrase that is declared obnoxious by some very small unrepresentative minority of people who coincidentally make their living as activists. Yes you can be houseless but not homeless, but you can also be homeless and not houseless. It's an utterly stupid distinction predicated on an intentionally in…

Some iconic precursors to PC speech was the redefinition of role titles. Janitor which everyone was familiar with would be replaced with "sanitation engineer" or something similar which conveyed less what the person did do.
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