Shoe Leather Psychology
The Myth Index
Popular psychology hands out labels as if they were explanations. Each page here takes one apart: what people say, what's really going on and one line worth keeping.
Labels pretending to be explanations
- Your emotions are running the show.Emotion is always downstream of thought.
- The body keeps the score.The body shows what your thinking and behavior have fed it.
- A diagnosis explains the behavior.Behavior can be observed. A label can't do anything.
- Feeling sure means you're right.Your own certainty is not evidence.
- Someone gaslit you.Nobody installs a thought in your head.
- He's a narcissist.Describe what he did. That you can check.
- Dopamine made you do it.Dopamine follows the value you assigned.