psychobabble

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This article refers to the neologism. For the Frou Frou song, see Details (album)

Psychobabble (a portmanteau of psychology or psychoanalysis and babble) is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords and highly esoteric language to give an impression of plausibility through mystification, misdirection, and obfuscation. The term implies that the speaker lacks the experience and understanding necessary for proper use of a given psychological term. Frequent usage can associate a clinical word with less meaningful buzzword definitions. Some psychological buzzwords have come into widespread use in business management training, motivational seminars, self-help, folk psychology, and popular psychology. These words can be overused by laypersons in describing life problems as clinical maladies, when such nomenclature is not valuable, meaningful or appropriate.

Psychobabble is also a psychological term used to denote the misdiagnosis and misclassification of natural variation in human psychology as psychopathological, or mentally disordered, and is based upon the premise of exaggerrated overmedicalization of physiological ailments to increase profits for the medical industry.

Basis of the term

Psychobabble is based on the idea that social and personal conflicts are more understandable through the use of complex, descriptive or special esoteric language. The word came into popular usage after the 1977 publication of Psychobabble: Fast talk and quick cure in the age of feeling, by author and journalist R. D. Rosen. He invented the word in 1975, and the word became a cover story in New Times Magazine, titled "Psychobabble: the new language of candor". The book Psychobabble explores an explosion of psychological treatments and terminology, in both professional and non-professional settings.

Most professions develop a unique vocabulary which, with frequent usage, may become commonplace buzzwords. Psychology practitioners may reject the psychobabble label when applied to the "ownership" of their special terminology. The vagueness inherent in many psychological concepts increases the use of psychobabble.

Some pejorative allusions to psychobabble imply that certain psychological concepts lack precision and eventually become meaningless or pseudoscientific. Science demands that ideas be testable in experiments where results are repeatable. In this context, the psychobabble label is pejorative in the implication that the language of psychology is often not based on scientifically proven concepts. In other cases, psychobabble can refer to the use of jargon to imply meanings beyond those accepted by scholars and trained practitioners.

Likely contexts

In some contexts, certain psychological jargon may be dismissed as psychobabble when used without training, or in discussion of pop psychology themes. New Age phraseology, self-help groups, personal development coaching, and Large Group Awareness Training often includes alleged psychobabble.

The word might be a contemptuous name for pretentious gibberish with psychological jargon. Automated talk-therapy offered by various ELIZA computer programs produce notable examples of conversational patterns that, while not loaded with jargon, can be accurately described as psychobabble. ELIZA programs parody clinical conversations in which a therapist replies to a statement with a question that requires little specific knowledge of a given topic.

A related term to psychobabble is neurobabble (Miller 1986). In Unvalidated Fringe and Fraudulent Treatment of Mental Disorders, Beyerstein (1990) writes that neurobabble can be found in “ads [that] suggest that brain 'repatterning' will foster effortless learning, creativity, and prosperity” and relates neuromythologies of left/right brain pseudoscience to specific New Age products and techniques. He adds that “the purveyors of neurobabble urge us to equate truth with what feels right and to abandon the commonsense insistence that those who would enlighten us provide at least as much evidence as we demand of politicians or used-car salesmen.”

Examples

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Psychobabble consists of selected words and phrases with roots in psychotherapy practice. Psychobabble terms are commonly overused as if they possess some special esoteric value or meaning when they might not. (Various terms and phrases from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are but one significant source of psychobabble, as the usage of various terms waxes and wanes, while, for the most part, the incidence of true mental disorders does not vary significantly over time).

• Co-dependent
• Denial
• Dysfunctional
• Psychosis
• Delusion
• Multiple Personality Disorder
• Empowerment
• Holistic
• Meaningful relationship
• Self-actualization
• Synergy
• Well-being

Extensive examples of psychobabble can be found in Cyra McFadden's satirical novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County.^[1]. A structural analysis of the language used in the book, and endorsement by McFadden of the use of the term is detailed in ^[2].

• Ego-tripping

See also

Glittering generality Gobbledygook Luntzspeak

Technobabble Syllogism

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