PSYchology

People think not in the right way, but in the usual and easy way, as everyone else thinks. When this happens in the field of psychology, psychological myths are born: simplified and erroneous ideas that contradict modern scientific data. How many such myths do you know?

Today, everyone knows that holding back your emotions is bad for your health. Holding back your emotions is like trying to keep steam in an overheated boiler: sooner or later the boiler will explode. Those who hold back their emotions increase their risk of stomach ulcers, heart attack, and stroke. In addition, by holding back their emotions, a person accumulates stress in himself, which often leads to neurosis.

Yes? Most likely, you have known this for a long time. Is not it?

In fact, it is not. Before you is an example of a popular myth, popularized by both psychologists and ordinary people who love to listen to smart psychologists. In fact, this is not true, and a very dangerous lie. Those who restrain their emotions do not turn into neurotics, and those who have not been used to restraining themselves since childhood often become psychopaths. As for health itself, according to studies, restrained people live longer than those who are not used to restraining their emotions, and are less prone to cardiovascular diseases. And the metaphor of an overheated boiler is inappropriate in this case: emotions are more like a fire in the forest — if it is not extinguished in time, it turns into a forest fire.

There are many such myths in modern popular psychology. Sometimes it seems to me that in the popular psychological literature there are more myths than serious scientific data. If you go down to the level of everyday psychology, then its main array is myths, myths, myths …

Do you want to make sure of this? Do you want to test yourself to what extent you managed to saturate yourself with common and erroneous ideas in the field of psychology? I have collected in this article the most common myths: what people say without thinking and what most people believe. Try it on for yourself, but be careful: most likely, many points will seem to you not at all myths, but the true truth.

And this is even funnier: if people believe in something, in many cases it becomes true. They believe in it, they begin to behave this way, others see it and are convinced that they are right, and soon someone’s random notion becomes a social fact. At least for a while.

1. About feelings

  1. The real engine of a person’s life is his feelings and desires.
  2. An emotional reaction is a natural and innate reaction that expresses our personal attitude to what is happening. See →
  3. There are no bad emotions. See →
  4. Feelings don’t lie. See →
  5. Suppressing emotions is bad for health. See →
  6. If the negative emotions that have arisen are not expressed, they accumulate and injure the psyche. See →
  7. Forbidding fears is driving them inside yourself. See →
  8. Emotions live in contrast: if you remove negative emotions, a person will stop feeling joy too. See →

2. About the feeling of love

  1. First of all, you need to create a family for love. See →
  2. If there is strong love, then the relationship will definitely develop! See →
  3. Love can be promised, but love cannot be negotiated. See →
  4. Love cannot last forever. See →
  5. Feelings do not command.

3. Feelings and reason

  1. Listening to your feelings is more important than listening to your head. See →
  2. The best solution is the intuitive one. See →
  3. When in doubt, listen to your heart! See →
  4. Thinking all the time is bad. See →
  5. He who thinks too much is not happy. See →

4. About human psychology

  1. From birth, a child is a person. See →
  2. Introverts are born. See →
  3. An attempt to change your character and psychotype only multiplies the number of internal problems. See → See →
  4. Only those who have problems go to psychologists. See →

5. About love for children

  1. Love for a child must be unconditional. See →
  2. Suppressing emotions is harmful, so allow children any negative emotions. See →
  3. Physical punishment of children is unacceptable because it breaks their psyche. See →
  4. Sexual abuse experienced in childhood is a severe psychological trauma for the whole future life. See →
  5. Every child needs, at least in childhood, unconditional love. See →
  6. Children who are not loved in childhood cannot build relationships in adulthood. See →
  7. Children should not be deprived of their childhood. A child whose parents deprived of childhood, deprived him of freedom, joy and future happiness. See →

6. How to educate you can, and how not

  1. Rigid discipline kills the creativity of children.
  2. An obedient child is cause for alarm. See →
  3. Completely obedient children will never become leaders. See →
  4. Pressure is a path to conflict and loss of contact. If the child loses contact with you, you need to reduce the pressure on him. See →

7. Is it necessary to raise children?

  1. Children must make their own decisions about their lives. See →
  2. The mindset of “matching parental patterns” is the wrong way to raise a child. See →
  3. Good kids are problem kids. Children should be natural, and not the way adults would like to see them! See →
  4. You need to be friends with a child, not educate. See →
  5. The best way to educate is to educate yourself and educate your child only by example. See →
  6. Imposing something on children leads to the opposite result, to an internal rejection of it. See →

8. About happiness

  1. All people strive for happiness. See →
  2. Whether we are happy or not is determined primarily by the events that happen to us. See →
  3. People are happy when they get what they want. See →
  4. Whatever people do, in the end everyone takes care of himself personally. See →

9. About success

  1. Only freed from the influence of society, you can find your way in life. See →
  2. Those who follow the path of social success are forced to give up their I and deprive themselves of happiness. See →
  3. Anyone who has found his calling in life always has the energy to do his job! See →

I think it will be very fun if you write in the comments what surprised you here or, all the more, why were you indignant: why did the author attribute obvious and well-known things to psychological myths? If someone wants to «defend» some myth named here and will refer to scientific data, I will be all the more grateful. In short, have fun, think and understand!

Leave a Reply