Quotes About Psychology

One reasonable reaction to evolutionary psychology is a self-consciousness so acute, and a cynicism so deep, that ironic detachment from the whole human enterprise may provide the only relief.

was beginning to observe the workings of what psychologists call the "default mode network." This is a network in the brain that, according to brain- scan studies, is active when we're doing nothing in particular—not talking to people, not focusing on our work or any other task, not playing a sport or reading a book or watching a movie. It is the network along which our mind wanders when it's wandering.

Natural selection doesn't "want" us to be happy, after all; it just "wants" us to be productive, in its narrow sense of productive. And the way to make us productive is to make the anticipation of pleasure very strong but the pleasure itself not very long-lasting.

Capgras delusion

I remember scrutinizing his face. I remember drinking his face down to the last drop, trying to elucidate the character, the psychology of such an individual. And yet the only thing about him that has remained is my memory of his ugliness.

it was found that girls who were exposed to an attempt at date rape were three times more likely to resume their relationship with the man concerned if his attempt succeeded than if it failed

Anticipating pain was like enduring it twice. Why not anticipate pleasure instead?

We live in our bodies. An assault on that outside fortress of the mind leaves scars that may not show, but never heal.

Shame is not a good emotion for a man to feel. It makes him angry as often as it makes him sorry.

Of all the people I could lie to, I'd always been best at lying to myself.

Más tarde comencé a merodear por el umbral del sueño. A veces creo que se descansa mejor en la frontera que separa la vigilia y el sueño que durmiendo. La mente erra bajo el crepúsculo de ambos estados y es capaz de desvelar las verdades que guardan tanto la luz del día como los sueños. Todo aquello que no estamos preparados para descubrir pervive en ese límite, a la espera de encontrarse con ese rincón desprotegido de la psique.

Being aware is being aware of one's own mind and the games it plays on itself.

Anyway, I grew up with a mom who regularly manipulated reality to best suit her needs. I

study. Something you can write up for the American Society of Shrinks—otherwise known

can you imagine paying for a place for your split personality? Makes you wonder how much she really knew about herself.

One out of twenty-three is a sociopath and that's 4 percent of the population, that's a lot of sociopaths. Anorexic's are 3 percent and everybody talks about them.

No one's paying any attention to sociopaths, or they think we're all killers, which is a misconception.

Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways. —Sigmund Freud

he knew that the face someone showed the world could be at odds with the psyche.

she knew from her practice that kids who felt terrible about their parents somehow ended up feeling terrible about themselves.

I can read you almost immediately, get your number right away, and push your buttons to make you do whatever I want.

Here are a few of the sources I used, and I heartily recommend them: Simon Baron-Cohen, The Science of Evil; Judith Beck, Cognitive Behavior Therapy; Louis Cozolino, The Making of a Therapist; Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths; James Fallon, The Psychopath Inside; Peter and Ginger Ross Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac; Robert D.

Shock is the stepsister of denial. It cushions the blow to your psyche when really fucked up things happen.

A word I read comes to mind: solastalgia, a miserable tangle of solace, desolation, and nostalgia.