Your Psychoanalyzing Sucks

A new post! You’ll have to excuse the slower pace this month – I am actually in the process of big changes in my personal life at the moment so I need to be organizing, scheduling and focusing all in on that.

But today I have time, and it’ll be spent talking about one of the more irritating things I’ve noticed these days, mainly in the form of “hey you said x, therefore <insert explanation as to why you’re a broken human>”.

I’m talking about psychologizing, or psychoanalyzing, or being an armchair shit head that doesn’t really know enough to make a proper judgement of someone, but does it anyway, because…I dunno, reasons?

That paragraph was a bit of a psychoanalysis, but a very minor one. It’s a generalized observation of things rather than a focus on any particular individual though, so it’s a claim that can be validated via pointing towards evidence. Here’s the thing, humans do this a lot and make complicated calls or judgements on many things. It’s actually how we survive in many respects, and there isn’t a problem with that so to speak.

But where does it become a problem? Usually, in the form of making enormous judgements of individuals based on a tweet or a sentence they once wrote. I see it all the time, and I’ve even done it before – but I don’t anymore, because it’s dumb. I’ll write an example conversation to illustrate the point:

“So Mike, I’m feeling pretty anxious about this new job. Got some concerns about it.”

“Well, it’s probably because you’re a stoic, and stoics don’t understand their own emotions, leaving them reeling in terror at the unknown void that they feel in their chest, left only to repress it because their philosophy makes them oblivious and unaware of the real reasons behind their anxiety/sadness. This is why stoicism is bad, and <2 more minutes of this>”

Now from all of this, the only valid reaction you ought to have is:

This entire blog post is an excuse to use this gif because it’s hilarious.

That example is a bit extreme, but it highlights what I’m talking about: people coming to conclusions about someones entire psychology based on some background info they know about them. Maybe it’s their personal philosophy, their upbringing, their education, etc. But Captain Know-It-All will connect the dots and deduce what your real problem is through that one thing. They won’t ask questions, or consider your concerns, they’ll just know, because they are very smart.

Now, this gives you some credit: you’re able to put things together. Well done, congratulations, you can do basic human things. But just because you can jam a circle into a square hole does not make you wise.

I say wise here, because wisdom is considering all the options and taking everything in, then integrating it based on facts and evidence. It’s a long, long process and it is very wise indeed to be evaluating all the facts before making a call. Yes, you have the cognitive capacity to make interesting connections in your head, but again, your pudding has no proof until you get the damn proof and understand the other persons problem thoroughly.

Individuals are very complicated, mixed meat bags in many respects. So are ideas. People are far too quick to jump to conclusions on someones happiness, someones problems, an idea, without first properly entertaining the issue and thoroughly examining it. It’s really just intellectual dick swinging bullshit, and it’s annoying as hell. It shows that the person is more interested in analyzing everything from a myopic viewpoint to show how good they are at playing connect four, without realizing that their connect four chips are all different colours.

Look at reality first. Listen to the issue the person has or study the idea you don’t understand. Entertain it and refer back to reality as the final arbiter of judgement. Consider all the facts and information you’ve taken in, then come to a conclusion you feel is best. Bounce it back and forth with other, wise people if you need to, too. Be reasonable and reality based, and life will hand you trophies.

…or just act like you’re Sigmund Freud and be an annoying ape.

That’s all. Have a good one.

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