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Well, actually, your entire comment is a giant "well, actually" comment. > this article is advocating a very particular and almost ideological approach. No, i

by sfink 2y ago

Well, actually, your entire comment is a giant "well, actually" comment. > this article is advocating a very particular and almost ideological approach. No, it really isn't. It's talking about what not to do. As it says in the title. It's not instructing anyone to dump. Your analysis of the proper motivations for creating a robust theory of behavior just isn't relevant here, in a discussion of that theory. It's kind of an example of going the wrong direction in a related sort of ring. At least the way I read it, you seemed to be talking about your personal disapproval, which isn't very relevant to other readers of the article. At least not by itself.

ants_everywhere 2y ago
I wasn't talking about motivations for creating a theory, I was talking about the process of creating a true theory. You can try to turn your pain into art, but it doesn't justify a theory. The theory has to be tested, and in this case it contradicts a lot of what is known about how to talk to people who have experienced trauma. A lot of people talk to me about their trauma, and in many cases it's stuff they haven't talked to others in their life about. I think it's an important topic. One thing I've noticed is people I'm close to do much worse when they read a lot of social media from trauma influencers. Most of it seems innocuous or even helpful and a lot of it is similar in tone to this essay. But what happens is the trauma-related content that rises to the top of the algorithmic leader board is the content that people engage with more. And that tends to be content that sinks people down deeper into the pain so that they seek out more trauma content to feel better. And so on in a recursive loop. A lot of the content is about the value of venting, a hierarchical (and I would argue somewhat authoritarian) approach to supporting people who have been through trauma. There's often a surprisingly judgmental tone toward people who don't do the right thing to support people, etc.

by sfink 2y ago

ants_everywhere 2y ago

I wasn't talking about motivations for creating a theory, I was talking about the process of creating a true theory. You can try to turn your pain into art, but it doesn't justify a theory. The theory has to be tested, and in this case it contradicts a lot of what is known about how to talk to people who have experienced trauma. A lot of people talk to me about their trauma, and in many cases it's stuff they haven't talked to others in their life about. I think it's an important topic. One thing I've noticed is people I'm close to do much worse when they read a lot of social media from trauma influencers. Most of it seems innocuous or even helpful and a lot of it is similar in tone to this essay. But what happens is the trauma-related content that rises to the top of the algorithmic leader board is the content that people engage with more. And that tends to be content that sinks people down deeper into the pain so that they seek out more trauma content to feel better. And so on in a recursive loop. A lot of the content is about the value of venting, a hierarchical (and I would argue somewhat authoritarian) approach to supporting people who have been through trauma. There's often a surprisingly judgmental tone toward people who don't do the right thing to support people, etc.