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> Too much psychology talk in every day life I'm curious to hear how often do you hear it in every day life outside of the internet.

tossandthrow 11mo ago
In all fairness, the internet is for many people a near 100% part of their life. Especially for people working remotely without a family.
- koakuma-chan 11mo ago
  HN is like 70% of my life.
  - pxc 11mo ago
    I also spend what feels to me like a lot of time here. I like it, despite its problems. But HN isn't good enough to deserve to be 70% of anyone's life. :(
    - koakuma-chan 11mo ago
      I agree, but it's 12:10 PM, and I am in my third meeting, pretending to pay attention. I wish the job market improved.
      - pxc 11mo ago
        I feel that. I wish the same.
      - Nevermark 11mo ago
        Have you tried tobacco, indoor firearms and cocaine? Oh … never mind. I have always worked remote and been hermitting recently on a difficult set of (work) challenges. I don’t know what I would do without HN. I read a lot of science, math and tech news, but am only aware of one place where the discourse around topics that interest me has the quality of HN, which is HN.
        koakuma-chan 11mo ago
        > Have you tried tobacco, indoor firearms and cocaine? I don't do alcohol, drugs, et cetera, because I saw other people who did, and found them disgusting. I don't want to be like that. Though if I could easily get my hands on a weapon, I would have probably shot myself already. > I read a lot of science, math and tech news, but am only aware of one place where the discourse around topics that interest me has the quality of HN, which is HN. There is also lobste.rs
- lukan 11mo ago
  Well, my nonprofessional opinion about those is, that no amount of therapy can help here, when their problem is isolation and the cure living close to people they like. (But therapy might help them getting there again. True eremits by heart are rare)
sho_hn 11mo ago
It definitely does feel like every American I know "has a therapist", sometimes.
- bear141 11mo ago
  I used to think that therapists were ridiculous. But after having one for six or seven years now, I realize that it’s literally just someone you pay to help you be the happiest and best version of yourself. Maybe everyone doesn’t need that, but I don’t think anyone is inherently always the best version of themselves. What’s the point of not trying to be a little better?
  - saghm 11mo ago
    I feel like the world would be a much better place if literally everyone did have a therapist. Having a neutral, trained professional you talk you for 45 minutes twice a month about things that are tough in your life is not something that should alarm people, but being vehemently against it honestly kind of is...
  - 21asdffdsa12 11mo ago
    The digestion juices of individualistic society?
    - bear141 11mo ago
      Do you mean therapy is designed to teach outcasts how to fit better into the machine? I would agree with that, and while I hate that it is partly true and reject anything like this for myself in general, individual happiness sometimes correlates with greasing your wheels to be a better subject.
  - flatline 11mo ago
    I have been in therapy on and off through most of my life. There are parts of the process and the profession that are helpful. There are also parts that are paternalistic bordering on abusive. “Literally just someone you pay to the be happiest…” is a small part of the picture. I take issue with this view of therapy, and the idea that it is somehow a universal force for good that will benefit everyone. I have met some pretty unhinged therapists - both as a client and socially. I won’t even go into the history of psychiatry and clinical care. One of the questions I like to pose is, what are we doing as a society by sending so many people to therapy? What do these practices do at a large scale? And to all those who decry things like gun violence: if you think our current mental health system would somehow be able to address the larger ills of society if only they had more funding, I have some serious questions about your view of its overarching effectiveness, and the specific effects of these practices.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
walthamstow 11mo ago
At work, like all the time? Empowerment, values, growth mindset, psychological safety, mindfulness, emotional intelligence...
- _cenw 11mo ago
  Half of these aren't people talking about mental health problems, but preconditions for mental health. That's your problem?
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - walthamstow 11mo ago
    Seems like we both agree that psychological language can be common in everyday offline life, such as at work for a large company. I don't have a problem with it, not sure where you got that from.
    - _cenw 11mo ago
      You're ignoring the subtext of the comment above yours. > Too much psychology talk in every day life, everyone is traumatised and has unresolved issues etc. That may be, but I wish we would handle it all more privately... Their problem isn't with the language itself, but how it is handled in public. That point doesn't really translate if you pivot to creating an environment conductive to mental health.
Fluorescence 11mo ago
Probably not what the parent is referring to, but there is 'therapy speak' and similar phenomena where a pop-sci bowdlerisation of professional practices or scientific theories become absorbed into the culture and change the way we express ourselves. There is pathologisation which can be whimsical e.g. tidying/organising becomes OCD, studying becomes autistic or exaggerative e.g. sadness becoming depression, a bad experience becoming trauma or in order condemn e.g a political policy becomes sociopathic. There is the way 'therapy speak' spills over into daily life e.g. your use of the work-kitchen must respect boundaries, leaving the milk out is triggering, the biscuits are my self-care etc. There is also 'neuroscience speak' where people express their emotions in terms of neurotransmitters e.g. motivation and stimulation becomes 'dopamine', happiness and love become 'serotonin', stress becomes 'cortisol' etc. It's just the way language and culture works and it now pulls more from science than myth and religion. New language might just be replacing older bowdlerisations e.g. hysteria. In the 'therapy-speak' cases, it's interesting how it often replaces more moralistic language and assertions about values that used be described in terms of manners, civility, respectability etc.

tossandthrow 11mo ago

In all fairness, the internet is for many people a near 100% part of their life. Especially for people working remotely without a family.

koakuma-chan 11mo ago
HN is like 70% of my life.
- pxc 11mo ago
  I also spend what feels to me like a lot of time here. I like it, despite its problems. But HN isn't good enough to deserve to be 70% of anyone's life. :(
  - koakuma-chan 11mo ago
    I agree, but it's 12:10 PM, and I am in my third meeting, pretending to pay attention. I wish the job market improved.
    - pxc 11mo ago
      I feel that. I wish the same.
    - Nevermark 11mo ago
      Have you tried tobacco, indoor firearms and cocaine? Oh … never mind. I have always worked remote and been hermitting recently on a difficult set of (work) challenges. I don’t know what I would do without HN. I read a lot of science, math and tech news, but am only aware of one place where the discourse around topics that interest me has the quality of HN, which is HN.
      - koakuma-chan 11mo ago
        > Have you tried tobacco, indoor firearms and cocaine? I don't do alcohol, drugs, et cetera, because I saw other people who did, and found them disgusting. I don't want to be like that. Though if I could easily get my hands on a weapon, I would have probably shot myself already. > I read a lot of science, math and tech news, but am only aware of one place where the discourse around topics that interest me has the quality of HN, which is HN. There is also lobste.rs
lukan 11mo ago
Well, my nonprofessional opinion about those is, that no amount of therapy can help here, when their problem is isolation and the cure living close to people they like. (But therapy might help them getting there again. True eremits by heart are rare)

sho_hn 11mo ago

It definitely does feel like every American I know "has a therapist", sometimes.

bear141 11mo ago
I used to think that therapists were ridiculous. But after having one for six or seven years now, I realize that it’s literally just someone you pay to help you be the happiest and best version of yourself. Maybe everyone doesn’t need that, but I don’t think anyone is inherently always the best version of themselves. What’s the point of not trying to be a little better?
- saghm 11mo ago
  I feel like the world would be a much better place if literally everyone did have a therapist. Having a neutral, trained professional you talk you for 45 minutes twice a month about things that are tough in your life is not something that should alarm people, but being vehemently against it honestly kind of is...
- 21asdffdsa12 11mo ago
  The digestion juices of individualistic society?
  - bear141 11mo ago
    Do you mean therapy is designed to teach outcasts how to fit better into the machine? I would agree with that, and while I hate that it is partly true and reject anything like this for myself in general, individual happiness sometimes correlates with greasing your wheels to be a better subject.
- flatline 11mo ago
  I have been in therapy on and off through most of my life. There are parts of the process and the profession that are helpful. There are also parts that are paternalistic bordering on abusive. “Literally just someone you pay to the be happiest…” is a small part of the picture. I take issue with this view of therapy, and the idea that it is somehow a universal force for good that will benefit everyone. I have met some pretty unhinged therapists - both as a client and socially. I won’t even go into the history of psychiatry and clinical care. One of the questions I like to pose is, what are we doing as a society by sending so many people to therapy? What do these practices do at a large scale? And to all those who decry things like gun violence: if you think our current mental health system would somehow be able to address the larger ills of society if only they had more funding, I have some serious questions about your view of its overarching effectiveness, and the specific effects of these practices.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

walthamstow 11mo ago

At work, like all the time? Empowerment, values, growth mindset, psychological safety, mindfulness, emotional intelligence...

_cenw 11mo ago
Half of these aren't people talking about mental health problems, but preconditions for mental health. That's your problem?
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- walthamstow 11mo ago
  Seems like we both agree that psychological language can be common in everyday offline life, such as at work for a large company. I don't have a problem with it, not sure where you got that from.
  - _cenw 11mo ago
    You're ignoring the subtext of the comment above yours. > Too much psychology talk in every day life, everyone is traumatised and has unresolved issues etc. That may be, but I wish we would handle it all more privately... Their problem isn't with the language itself, but how it is handled in public. That point doesn't really translate if you pivot to creating an environment conductive to mental health.

Fluorescence 11mo ago

Probably not what the parent is referring to, but there is 'therapy speak' and similar phenomena where a pop-sci bowdlerisation of professional practices or scientific theories become absorbed into the culture and change the way we express ourselves. There is pathologisation which can be whimsical e.g. tidying/organising becomes OCD, studying becomes autistic or exaggerative e.g. sadness becoming depression, a bad experience becoming trauma or in order condemn e.g a political policy becomes sociopathic. There is the way 'therapy speak' spills over into daily life e.g. your use of the work-kitchen must respect boundaries, leaving the milk out is triggering, the biscuits are my self-care etc. There is also 'neuroscience speak' where people express their emotions in terms of neurotransmitters e.g. motivation and stimulation becomes 'dopamine', happiness and love become 'serotonin', stress becomes 'cortisol' etc. It's just the way language and culture works and it now pulls more from science than myth and religion. New language might just be replacing older bowdlerisations e.g. hysteria. In the 'therapy-speak' cases, it's interesting how it often replaces more moralistic language and assertions about values that used be described in terms of manners, civility, respectability etc.