Psychological Words That Don’t Mean What You Think

A lot of psychological terms don't mean what people think they mean (at least, not according to psychologists). There's an increasing drift between how they get used colloquially in everyday language and the commonly accepted definitions among psychologists. There's a sense in which the lay usage is "wrong" (in that it doesn't match more scientific, precise, or technical usage), but of course, language has always been and always will be in flux. At the end of the day, a word does mean what p...
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Psychology Terms You’re Probably Misusing

A lot of psychological terms don't mean what people think they mean (at least, not according to psychologists). There's an increasing drift between how they get used colloquially in everyday language and the commonly accepted definitions among psychologists. There's a sense in which the lay usage is "wrong" (in that it doesn't match more scientific, precise, or technical usage), but of course, language has always been and always will be in flux. At the end of the day, a word does mean what p...
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What is Lightgassing? A way we harm people by validating their false beliefs

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Gaslighting, where someone causes another person to doubt their sanity or senses, can cause psychological damage. There's an opposite thing, though, that can also be damaging. As far as I know, it has no name. I call it "lightgassing" (or "light gassing"). Here, I explain how lightgassing works. Lightgassing is when one person agrees with or validates another person's false beliefs or misconceptions in order to be supportive.  Unlike gaslighting, a tactic of jerks and abusers,...
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