Psychobabble

Psychobabble (a portmanteau of "psychology" or "psychoanalysis" and "babble") is a term for language that uses psychological jargon and buzzwords in a manner that may lack accuracy, genuine meaning, or relevance.^[1]

Origin of the term

Psychobabble was defined by the writer who coined the word, R.D. Rosen,^[2]^[3] as

a set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity, candour, and understanding it pretends to promote. It’s an idiom that reduces psychological insight to a collection of standardized observations that provides a frozen lexicon to deal with an infinite variety of problems.^[4]

The word itself came into popular use after his 1977 publication of Psychobabble: Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Era of Feeling.^[5]

Rosen coined the word in 1975 in a book review for The Boston Phoenix, then featured it in a cover story for the magazine New Times titled "Psychobabble: The New Language of Candor."^[6] His book Psychobabble explores the dramatic expansion of psychological treatments and terminology in both professional and non-professional settings.

Contexts and uses

In the 2012 book Psychobabble: Exploding the Myths of the Self-help Generation Stephen Briers critiqued the increasing use of psychobabble in the self-help industry and popular psychology, and its permeation into areas such as business coaching and corporate culture.^[7] He wrote that psychobabble is "often lazy pseudoscience that ought to be robustly interrogated so we can see what’s real, solid and potentially useful to us, and what is just smoke and mirrors."^[7]

Scott Lilienfeld and Donald Meichenbaum write that psychobabble is often used in promoting psychological interventions that may be overhyped, lack evidence, or pseudoscientific, through the use of language that appears scientific but lacks substance.^[8]

Neurobabble

Barry Beyerstein wrote in 1990 that neurobabble can appear in "ads [that] suggest that brain 'repatterning' will foster effortless learning, creativity, and prosperity." He wrote about the use of left/right brain pseudoscience and other "neuromythologies" by New Age products and techniques. He stated that "the purveyors of neurobabble urge us to equate truth with what feels right and to abandon the commonsense insistence that those who would enlighten us provide at least as much evidence as we demand of politicians or used-car salesmen."^[9]

According to Lilienfeld and Meichenbaum neurobabble and "naïve biological reductionism" is commonly used in the promotion of psychological interventions that may be pseudoscientific or overhyped. This can include the use of terms such as "sensorimotor integration", "neuroplasticity", "synaptic networks", "hemispheric synchronization", and "body memories". They write that many proponents of interventions explain their treatments with "dubious neurological hypotheses" which have very limited scientific support, and are premature "given our present lack of understanding of how to bridge the vast gulf between the neural and psychological levels of analysis".^[8]

Characteristics

Scott Lilienfeld and Donald Meichenbaum state that terms used in psychobabble can include "holistic healing", "codependency", "closure", "synergy", "sex addiction", and "inner child".^[8] Rosen has suggested that the following terms often appear in psychobabble: co-dependent, delusion, denial, dysfunctional, empowerment, holistic, meaningful relationship, multiple personality disorder, narcissism, psychosis, self-actualization, synergy, and mindfulness.^{[citation needed]} Extensive examples of psychobabble appear in Cyra McFadden's satirical novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County (1977).^[10] In his collection of critical essays, Working with Structuralism (1981), the British scholar and novelist David Lodge gives a structural analysis of the language used in the novel and notes that McFadden endorsed the use of the term.^[11]

In 2010, Theodore Dalrymple defined psychobabble as "the means by which people talk about themselves without revealing anything."^[12]

References

^ "Definition of 'psychobabble'". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
^ "Psychobabble - Richard Dean Rosen". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
^ "Psychobabble dictionary definition - psychobabble defined". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
^ Andrews, Robert (1993). The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. Columbia University Press. p. 480. ISBN 9780231071949. Retrieved 16 June 2015. a set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity.
^ Rosen, R.D. (1977). Psychobabble: Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Era of Feeling (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. ISBN 978-0-689-10775-7.
^ Compare: Hallenstein, Craig B. (February 1978). "Ethical problems of psychological jargon" (PDF). Professional Psychology. 9 (1). American Psychological Association: 111–116. ISSN 0735-7028. Retrieved 2010-01-31. RD Rosen (1975) pointed to the tyranny of 'psychological patter' in his article 'Psychobabble: The New Jargon of Candor.'
^ ^a ^b Briers, Stephen (2012). Psychobabble: Exploding the Myths of the Self-help Generation. Pearson. ISBN 978-0-273-77239-2.
^ ^a ^b ^c Meichenbaum, Donald; Lilienfeld, Scott O. (2018). "How to spot hype in the field of psychotherapy: A 19-item checklist" (PDF). Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 49 (1): 22–30. doi:10.1037/pro0000172. ISSN 1939-1323.
^ Beyerstein, B.L. (1990). "Unvalidated Fringe and Fraudulent Treatment of Mental Disorders". International Journal of Mental Health. 19 (3): 27–36. doi:10.1080/00207411.1990.11449169.
^ McFadden, Cyra (2000). The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County. Prion Books. ISBN 978-1-85375-383-1.
^ Lodge, David (1981). Working with Structuralism: Essays and Reviews on Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Literature. Boston: Routledge & K. ISBN 978-0-7100-0658-5.
^ Dalrymple, Theodore (2010). Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality. Gibson Square Books Ltd. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-906142-61-2.

[1] "Definition of 'psychobabble'". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 1 June 2025.

[2] "Psychobabble - Richard Dean Rosen". Retrieved 16 June 2015.

[3] "Psychobabble dictionary definition - psychobabble defined". Retrieved 16 June 2015.

[4] Andrews, Robert (1993). The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. Columbia University Press. p. 480. ISBN 9780231071949. Retrieved 16 June 2015. a set of repetitive verbal formalities that kills off the very spontaneity.

[5] Rosen, R.D. (1977). Psychobabble: Fast Talk and Quick Cure in the Era of Feeling (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. ISBN 978-0-689-10775-7.

[6] Compare: Hallenstein, Craig B. (February 1978). "Ethical problems of psychological jargon" (PDF). Professional Psychology. 9 (1). American Psychological Association: 111–116. ISSN 0735-7028. Retrieved 2010-01-31. RD Rosen (1975) pointed to the tyranny of 'psychological patter' in his article 'Psychobabble: The New Jargon of Candor.'

[:1-7] Briers, Stephen (2012). Psychobabble: Exploding the Myths of the Self-help Generation. Pearson. ISBN 978-0-273-77239-2.

[:0-8] Meichenbaum, Donald; Lilienfeld, Scott O. (2018). "How to spot hype in the field of psychotherapy: A 19-item checklist" (PDF). Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 49 (1): 22–30. doi:10.1037/pro0000172. ISSN 1939-1323.

[9] Beyerstein, B.L. (1990). "Unvalidated Fringe and Fraudulent Treatment of Mental Disorders". International Journal of Mental Health. 19 (3): 27–36. doi:10.1080/00207411.1990.11449169.

[serial-10] McFadden, Cyra (2000). The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County. Prion Books. ISBN 978-1-85375-383-1.

[11] Lodge, David (1981). Working with Structuralism: Essays and Reviews on Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Literature. Boston: Routledge & K. ISBN 978-0-7100-0658-5.

[12] Dalrymple, Theodore (2010). Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality. Gibson Square Books Ltd. p. 140. ISBN 978-1-906142-61-2.

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