Psycho-babble
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Psycho-babble is a term that serves to dismiss psychology as a non-science, both in a specific instance of an argument based upon the current principles of psychology, and in general as a science that can derive a factual prediction of real-world behavior. The underlying basis for this dismissal is the argument that psychology has been characterized by cycles of fad and fashion, followed by discard and disenchantment, rather than by evolving theory and scientific methodology. From Freud to Skinner, the "giants" of psychology are characterized as generators of a parade of discarded ideas and metaphors.
On a different scale, the term psycho-babble may also disparagingly refer to grandiloquent but allegedly empty jargon or buzzwords with a psychological tinge. This is a use of the term that is internal; that is, those who practice psychology of one form or another are typically those who would use it in this fashion.
As with any self-respecting jargon, practitioners find these shorthand usages normal and useful, referring to valid concepts; thus they are very likely to reject the label of "psycho-babble." But the vagueness inherent in many psychological concepts also permits the use of "real" terminology in ways that may seem inappropriate to others. Some who are accused of psycho-babble suspect that this may be because certain concepts of psychology themselves so lack precision as to become meaningless, and that true believers only frown upon psycho-babble because it represents use by non-practitioners. This is one of the key points of the argument that psychology is not a science. Science demands that ideas be testable, that experimental results be repeatable, that ideas that fail this regime be discarded. The very phrase "certain concepts of psychology themselves so lack precision" is manifestly un-scientific.
Users of psychological jargon have argued that critics have invented the term as a defense against the critics' own deep, repressed fears and traumas. By attacking and undermining the whole language of personal exploration, the critics attempt to ensure that the time when they may have to acknowledge these parts of their psyches gets pushed into the distant future. Critics would probably reject this argument -- because to them, it is psychobabble.
The term dates from the 1960s, the era of origin of popular widespread analysis and of counselling groups. It was coined by science fiction writers Walt Richmond in 1961 at Milford, Pennsylvania at Arrowhead.
Sources that are often suggested to be using psychobabble include the phraseology of New Agers, self-help groups, personal development coaching and LGATs (Large Group Awareness Training).
Any of the various Eliza computer programs excel at producing psychobabble.
Examples of concepts, words and phrases that are possibly psychobabble
- access to
- alignment
- acknowledgement
- authentic
- breakthrough
- change
- closure
- co-dependent
- communication
- conversation
- congruence
- creativity
- empowerment
- enrollment
- envision
- expressing feelings
- facilitation
- getting it
- grounded
- holistic
- integration
- integrity
- leadership
- in one's life
- meaning
- openness
- new paradigm
- having passion
- on the planet
- possibility
- projects
- quality
- racket
- really / reality
- meaningful relationship
- responsibility
- self-actualization
- self esteem
- spaced out
- spirituality
- stressed out
- stuff (as in My stuff, meaning my unexamined emotional material)
- synergy
- taking a stand
- team spirit
- transformation
- validation
- visioning
- well-being
- win-win
- it (just) works