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Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

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Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#111

Post by khazhoux »

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 don't have any problem with the word per se (it doesn't evoke any connection with mental health, if that's where you're going with it).

But... it's a dumb and unnecessary word, in the contexts you mention. When I'm at a meeting and someone says "I'm going to propose a crazy idea" I always think "Just get on with it, man, no need to tamp down expectations."

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#112

Post by hobs »

MichaelCollins wrote: post #45

> Nevertheless, the attitude-change techniques used by so-called “brainwashers” are no different than standard persuasive methods identified by social psychologists, such as encouraging commitment to goals, manufacturing source credibility, forging an illusion of group consensus, and vivid testimonials The brainwashing techniques used by various cults, criminal gangs and regimes go far beyond these gentle methods. Pa…

Depends on if they put you in a mental institution, because then they definitely do, also physical torture if you act up enough!

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#113

Post by typon »

ndr wrote: post #86

> (27) The scientific method. Many science textbooks, including those in psychology, present science as a monolithic “method.” [...] Contrary to what most scientists themselves appear to believe, science is not a method; it is an approach to knowledge (Stanovich, 2012). Specifically, it is an approach that strives to better approximate the state of nature by reducing errors in inferences. Mmmh is this Psychology opti…

See absolutely nothing wrong with this quote. The "scientific method" is almost a meaningless term because it means different things to different branches of study - discouraging its use for more accurate terminology makes perfect sense.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#114

Post by lazide »

c7b wrote: post #79
jrm4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, "at large" is a bit extreme. This is a spectrum. But psychology appears to be far worse than the others, even reading from this paper. I'm a lawyer, and even law isn't this bad. "Symptoms are unobservable?"

Law, really? Aren't there a lot of legal terms (like 'ownership', 'possession' 'contract',...) that have precise legal definitions that may differ in crucial aspects from their colloquial usage? I think you're confusing a definition being easy to understand with it being well-defined. Mathematical definitions are often hard to grasp exactly because they are so well-defined. If you want something to be easily understa…

In my unfortunately extensive experience with legal matters as a non lawyer, there really aren’t many legal terms with material reduction in meanings when used legally. For the most part, like in medicine, a less commonly used word is used instead (often in another less commonly used language, such as Latin).

For example, most people would consider a contract to be something written down that says ‘contract’. A few know it can be verbal too.

When really, it could be verbal, video, scrawled in blood on the side of a fence, or any number of other forms, and really covers any agreement that meets certain criteria (generally that there is some form of payment or consideration, an offer, and an acceptance - think ‘quid pro quo’ or something for something).

99% of the time, the public is right. The other times, something went really wrong somewhere and someone did something pretty weird and dumb for it to matter.

In engineering, physics, math, it’s not uncommon to need SOME unique identifier for the thing, and there are very specific technical needs for it to even have a conversation on the topic - and often we’ve run out of pronounceable or recognizable symbols, alternative alphabets, etc.

So down spin quark it is.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#116

Post by mcBesse »

jrm4 wrote: post #20
photochemsyn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call psychology a 'pseudo-science', more that it's at a level of development comparable to 19th century medicine, when the concept of infectious disease being due to transmittable microbes or viruses was not understood. Most 'psychological disorders' today are not diagnosed based on specific physical-chemical tests, i.e. one can say with high certainty that a patient has drug-resistant tuberculosis using a…

Interesting. This implies that psychology is strongly likely to "get better," like out of it's 19th century phase? I see no reason to believe that?

I doubt psychology will ever change like alchemy into chemistry, but perhaps advancements in our understanding of the mind will take a different form?

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#117

Post by rhino369 »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #95
jrm4 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, "at large" is a bit extreme. This is a spectrum. But psychology appears to be far worse than the others, even reading from this paper. I'm a lawyer, and even law isn't this bad. "Symptoms are unobservable?"

This is basically the case in much of medicine. Pain is not observable. It's reported. Loss of vision or hearing isn't observable, it's reported. You can run tests to get an idea of whether any of these are happening. But you are not observing any of these symptoms. You're observing behavior and inferring what kinds of symptoms the person is experiencing and what degree.

But is a runny nose (observable) not a symptom of a cold? Is fever not a symptom of Covid?

If that's how medicine actually uses the term, okay, sometimes terms of art clash with the plain meaning, but damn that is a pretty weird distinction, as a layman.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#118

Post by runarberg »

lvass wrote: post #58
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…

Agreed. I despise political correctness yet appreciate this list, using precise language is always a good idea. I clicked in ready to see "shell shock" being renamed for the third time in less than a century, but that type of shenanigan is not what this article is about.

> I clicked in ready to see "shell shock" being renamed for the third time in less than a century

It’s interesting you’d say that because I always understood the term Shell Shock to have been abandoned in favor of a more accurate and descriptive term. So I think if it was still in use by psychologists today (for some reason), I would have expected to see that on this list, and see the authors argue for the far more accurate term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

As a case in point, this list does include Multiple personality disorder and argues we should instead use the more accurate term dissociative identity disorder.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#119

Post by Kranar »

_8j50 wrote: post #33

> Furthermore, there are ample reasons to doubt whether “brainwashing” permanently alters beliefs This person needs to look at interviews of mk-ultra experiment survivors. Brainwashing is very real and permanent.

MKUltra would be an example in support of the claim that brainwashing is not real.

No one is disputing that subjecting someone to drugs will permanently alter their beliefs, anyone who has come in contact with an alcoholic or a heavy drug addict knows this but that's not what brainwashing is. Brainwashing is ability to control someone's thoughts often with the goal of inducing specific beliefs and ideas. While there is plenty of evidence that MKUltra damaged people psychologically and forever changed their personality, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that it managed to change their personality in a controlled manner.

Re: Psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

#120

Post by herghost »

kbos87 wrote: post #115

This isn’t used in medical circles anymore but I’m shocked that it’s still acceptable to label something or someone as “hysterical”, which I believe implies erratic behavior that ties back to having a uterus.

I've heard 'testerical' used as a synonym. Possibly in a tongue-in-cheek way.
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