h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Psychology has been the source of quite a few commonly used words that differ quite markedly from the original, or as the field currently uses them, and several spring to mind:

Psychology/Psychiatry are two commonly confused words, that actually describe quite different professions, but words that are used within Psychology are subject to a fair bit of abuse as well. For instance, "ego"; "schizophrenia"; and "subliminal" (as in subliminal advertising).

"Ego" is a term first used by Freud to describe three basic components of human personality - "id", or the basic drives, that component that lacks moral judgement and is unconscious; "ego", the component that develops to act as a mediator between the id and reality, operating according to the "reality principle" and allowing the delay of impulses until the situation is appropriate; and the "superego", which includes the conscience, ideals and values acquired from society - the superego (according to Freud) also acts to supress sexual impulses. The ego acts as a supervisor, negotiating a compromise between the libidinous id and the rule-driven, moralistic superego.

"Schizophrenia" is a term introduced by Swiss psychiatriast Bleuler in 1911. The word comes from the Greek "split-mind" - hence the common use of the term to mean split-personality (dissociative identity disorder), which it is not. Schizophrenia is more a "shattering' of the mind, primarily referring to severely disordered thoughts (although perceptual, emotional or behavioural processes may also be disturbed. Schizophrenia (commonly divided into different symptomatic sub-groups) is actually still a controversial topic - some Psychologists (mainly in Europe, as opposed to the USA) question the existence of the grouped symptoms of Schizophrenia as a seperate category of disorder.

"Subliminal" has come to mean unconscious processing of a stimulus (for example, in subliminal advertising). In fact, subliminal refers to below threshold stimulation in neuroscientific terms - prior to conscious or unconscious processing - and therefore subliminal advertising is supraliminal, but unattended...

Hi there.

Just your counsellor form the Counselling-page (19 weeks ago) dropping by to see what you were doing.

I liked this forum and would just suggest you to use it for an H2G2 article about popular psychological misunderstandings. Boy are there a lot of those about...

Feel free to come back to the counselling forum soon - my advice (weird as it may be) is still available.

Yours - KimotoCat