Member-only story
Therapy-speak does harm to everyone’s wellbeing
Inaccurate terms have taken hold, and it is not good for anyone
For those up to date on social media, you’ll know of the recent furore where a person posted screenshots allegedly of their ex-partner’s texts. These texts appeared somewhat controlling, yet were seemingly legitimised by the person using psychological terms throughout.
I’m not going to get into details here, nor the validity or rightness of posting such texts — this isn’t a gossip column. But there was something about the furore that seemed very familiar to me — that of the potential of therapy-speak justifying some inappropriate behaviour.
But before we go on, let’s do a mini glossary. Therapy-speak is when someone peppers their speech with psychological concepts. It’s often an amplification of normal feelings, behaviours, and reactions, into legitimate psychological terms, but using these terms inaccurately.
Thus, worry about an exam may be described as ‘anxiety’. Not wanting to do certain things may be described as a person’s ‘boundaries’. Someone else simply talking about themselves may signal ‘narcissism’. A person who is critical may be called a ‘gaslighter’… get the picture?
