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Showing posts from February, 2026

Why does everyday psychotherapy language feel both empowering and troubling?

Todays post is by Manuel Almagro (University of Valencia) and Carme Isern-Mas (University of the Balearic Islands), presenting their recent paper ' Blunting concepts: The double-edged effect of popularizing psychotherapy language ' (Philosophical Psychology). Manuel Almagro In the last week, a friend might have described a harmful and impactful past experience as “traumatic”, talked about their “OCD” after arranging their bookshelf by color, or called a weekend of binge-watching shows and ignoring work emails “self-care”. A colleague might have tried to justify their demand that their partner not hang out with friends under the pretext that these were their “boundaries”. A relative might have explained their feelings of exhaustion and detachment as symptoms of “burn-out”, or mentioned that their boss has recommended “mindfulness” to an overwhelmed worker so that they can better cope with time pressure atwork. Psychotherapy language is more and more present in our everyday talk....