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Terms to Avoid

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Clarissa

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Antidepressant medication, autism epidemic, brainwashing, bystander apathy, chemical imbalance, hypnotic trance, hard-wired, lie detector test, steep learning curve, personality type, mind-body therapies, acting out (in the sense of disruptive behavior) – these are meaningless, silly words and expressions that intelligent people should not use.

And I want to point out that I’ve been begging people not to use several of them for years. Verbal carelessness is a sign of a sloppy, undisciplined mind.

3 responses to “Terms to Avoid”

  1. David P. Bellamy Avatar
    David P. Bellamy

    “Brainwashing” refers to the torture techniques used by the North Koreans during the Korean War. I don’t believe it is inappropriate to use this word at all, although beyond this historical usage it may be problematic.

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    I agree that professionals and academics should not use these terms in professional/academic settings except with the specialized meanings that they have in their fields.

    But, most of these have very different everyday meanings (as measured by real world usage) and I don’t perceive any reason to not use them with those meanings.

    I’m reminded of old warnings about sexism in language, how hysteria derives from uterus and testimony from testes (and therefore using them perpetuates sexist thinking).

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      There is a reason. At least, for the word “hard-wired”: it bugs me. 🙂 “Hysteria” doesn’t bug me. It’s one of my favorite words. I always found the idea of a traveling uterus to be cute.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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