Exploring the forces that shape the human psyche
Brainwashing is the process of repeatedly indoctrinating a person with a new set of beliefs. It’s helpful to think of brainwashing in terms of identity. When someone is brainwashed, they ditch their old identity and acquire a new one. The indoctrinated beliefs that support the person’s new identity change their thoughts and behaviors. The person …
People with abandonment issues fear being abandoned by their loved ones. Being the social species that we are, all of us dislike being abandoned by others, especially by our relatives and in-groups. While some level of this fear is normal, a person with abandonment issues lives in this fear constantly. Accepting and rejecting someone lies …
Life is full of ups and downs. The ups are accompanied by positive emotions and the downs by negative emotions. Negative emotions bring discomfort and pain. The mind uses negative emotions to draw our attention to the pain. One could, theoretically, listen to one’s negative emotions, work through them and find solutions to end the …
Dissociation is a psychological phenomenon where a person feels disconnected from reality- or from themselves. Dissociation occurs on a spectrum, ranging from mild to severe. Spacing out and daydreaming are common examples of mild dissociation. You may have noticed that they’re often triggered by mild discomfort such as boredom and information overwhelm. The mind going …
Humans are a social species that evolved to live in tightly knit, genetically related groups. Early humans highly depended on their groups for survival. Being shunned by one’s social group likely meant death. Therefore, humans have developed psychological mechanisms to be sensitive to the signs of shunning. They seek to conform to their group and …
Being salty means being bitter towards something or someone. When others make you salty, they ‘leave a bad taste in your mouth’. Of course, they don’t physically put something bitter in your mouth. But it certainly feels that way. Human experiences are fascinating, as always. It’s natural to feel bitter towards someone when they intentionally …
There seem to be two types of people in the world- shallow and deep. You probably have some idea of who deep people are. Their thoughts, feelings, and words have depth. They have the ability to see beyond the surface. Shallow people are the complete opposite. They lack depth in their thoughts, words, feelings, and …
Humans are social species hard-wired to care about the business of other humans in their social circles. It’s what made us tick for thousands of years. An unwanted consequence of this tendency is nosiness. I have done a separate piece on what makes people nosy that you might want to check out. Long story short, …
A highly sensitive person easily senses threats in their social environment. They have a lower threshold of getting offended. Hence, they’re often labeled as thin-skinned and overreactive by others. Both genetic and environmental factors seem to contribute to high sensitivity. Introverts and those who score high on Neuroticism are likely to be highly sensitive. Traumatic …
A sociopathic person is one who has antisocial personality disorder. Sociopaths pursue their self-interest with disregard to others. They have a win-lose mentality. While both men and women can be sociopaths, sociopathy is more common in men. Sociopathy in boys is often detected at a young age (around 8 years). It’s not clear what exactly …