In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is cancel culture. Cancel culture is an odd phenomenon spawned by the social media era. Some argue that it poses a threat to freedom of speech. I didn’t know enough to write an opinion post on it, so […]
What Is… Cancel Culture Read More »
There’s been a lot of talk over the last while about freedom of speech, with some people feeling that their freedom of speech, or freedom of speech in general, is being limited. I thought I’d chime in on the matter, although I’m perhaps a bit late to the party. Freedom of speech is considered a
What Does Freedom of Speech Actually Mean? Read More »
Honesty is the best policy, right? I say no, no, no, no. And let’s add on one more no, just for good measure. I would also like to propose two kinds of “honesty”, only one of which I think actually involves honesty. Objective truths First, you’ve got things that can be answered or described objectively.
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Honesty? Read More »
I saw the topic of trigger warnings circulating in the blogosphere recently, and I thought I’d chime in with my own thoughts. In a very general sense, a trigger is one thing causing another to occur. What’s particular to people with a past trauma history is that what’s being triggered is re-experiencing. That means re-experiencing
Are Trigger Warnings Useful? Read More »
We all have a mix of many different factors that shape our worldview. I thought I’d tell you some of mine and hopefully, you’ll tell me some of yours. Growing up Education was highly valued in my family. My parents also believed in being very careful with money and not spending money you didn’t have
What Influences Your Worldview? Read More »
Two men get killed. Some members of the Christian right are calling the man who killed them a hero and a patriot sent by God. Something isn’t adding up here. On August 25, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse grabbed his AR-15 style rifle and left his home in Antioch, IL, to head over to Kenosha, WI. He
Kyle Rittenhouse as Christian Right Hero? Read More »
The internet is full of talk about toxic people. Searching for “toxic person” yields 295 million hits on Google. That’s a whole lotta toxicity. If someone is abusive, you deserve to a) be free from them, and b) call them toxic or whatever else you might choose. But those 295 million online hits aren’t all
The “Toxic Person” Label and Mental Illness Read More »
Along the lines of “choose happiness,” you may have seen the message “good vibes only,” or something along the lines of getting rid of negative people from your life. But where do people who aren’t well fit into this? To be clear, I’m not talking about people who are negative about you. If someone is
“Should” You Avoid Negative People? Read More »
I recently came across ring theory, an approach to supporting people in times of crisis, loss, and grief that involves the notion of comfort in, dump out. It was first described in an LA Times article by Susan Silk and Barry Goldman. The development of ring theory Ring theory was developed by clinical psychologist Susan
Ring Theory: Comfort In, Dump Out Read More »
A fellow blogger recently shared this Youtube video. The video is about supporting someone who is grieving, but it’s a powerful message about validation in general, which is what inspired this post. Many of us have chosen to blog because there are difficult experiences that we’re dealing with. We look for various things out of
The Power of Validation Read More »
