5 ms·
I think this is a really important point. We use lots of terms these days in ever more generic ways: cult, gaslighting, abuse, "I'm a bit OCD" ... each broader
by sirsinsalot 4y ago
I think this is a really important point. We use lots of terms these days in ever more generic ways: cult, gaslighting, abuse, "I'm a bit OCD" ... each broader use of the language weakens the contexts where the language is more pointed.
Of course, context is everything and language is fluid, but think pieces that inadvertently soften words can also downgrade important intentions as a side-effect.
- cercatrova 4y agoThis is known as a euphemism treadmill.
- drewbug01 4y agoI agree with that, yes. Of course - I’m glad that society now speaks about these things openly (rather than pretending mental health issues were not real problems). But it does come with the downside you highlighted.
- jcims 4y agoIt's like the loudness wars in music production. Dynamic range in language is being sacrificed to elevate the mundane. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
- pas 4y agoSpectrum things are spectrum things after all, and they are symptom driven diagnoses, so colloquial usage of these terms are not particularly bad/incorrect/invalid. Though of course it can lead to misuderstandings and severe conflicts when someone who suffers gravely from one such condition and now in addition they have to add more qualifiers and verbosity to try to express their needs.
- jcims 4y agoI would argue they are bad/incorrect/invalid if they dilute the meaning or abuse its gravity for effect.
- pas 4y agoIf done for effect yes, but if someone said "I reorganized my plates in the kitchen cabinet during the weekend to feed my OCD" ... and their kitchen was pretty okay before, then I'd say that it's a pretty valid sentence. Is it the same thing that prevents people from leaving their house, because they get stuck at the door checking whether they really locked it? No, of course, but it's also not a thing with absolutely no commonality. I sometimes get stuck deciding how to re-organize things, try it this way, or maybe next month I try it that way ... then eventually but relatively quickly I get upset about it and then accept this imperfection of the world, and that's it. Is it OCD? No, and I don't use the term, but it's more OCD-like than what probably ~80-90% of the population does. And yes, of course it used to be that the clinical term was used for only the ~1% extreme end of the spectrum. (But then useful terms spread and now their use is more common and broader, and yes, it absolutely makes it less precise, dilutes their original meaning, etc. But "so ist das Leben", that's language for ya.) And, in general, words' gravity is very context dependent. Cursing is almost like a requirement in some situations in the military, while it's absolutely forbidden in others. Or misusing religious words in a very religious setting, etc.
- user_7832 4y agoDon't forget the (sibling?) of OCD, OCPD. Similar but different.
- ineedasername 4y ago>"these days" This has ever been the case. As one example, you can look at the cyclic nature of words used to describe someone who, according to current terms, has an "intellectual disability": Idiot Moron Imbecile Retarded These words and others have, at various times, been used in a specific clinical context. As those words seeped out of the clinical setting into the general public's awareness they started being used in more generic, looser, non clinical settings, often as insults. When that happened-- often when the associated stigma gained so much weight that it was difficult to use as a unloaded clinical term-- new terms started to be used. "Retarded" is the most recent to reach its EOL. Phonemic complexity seems to make this process a little more difficult: Intellectual Disability may be too much of a mouthful to easily become a quick insult. The evolution & etymology of these terms is actually a bit more complex than this, but it gives a rough sketch of the phenomenon. It's just the natural cycle of language use.