Quotes About Psychology

When it comes to people--don't write about who you know, but what you know of human nature.

Thinking you don't have unhealthy patterns is an unhealthy pattern in itself. And everyone has something unhealthy from their childhood. If you don't deal with it, it can ruin your life.

Games are lost and won in your mind as much as they are on the field.

All colours are arbitrary.

The Yale anthropologist Weston La Barre goes far as to argue that `a surprisingly good case could be made that much of culture is hallucination` and that `the whole intent and function of ritual appears to be... a group wish to hallucinate reality`.

It's no surprise that appeals to a state of mind called faith can relieve symptoms caused, at least in part, by another, perhaps not very different state of mind.

There is child abuse, and there are such things as repressed memories. But there are also such things as false memories and confabulations, and they are not rare at all. Misrememberings are the rule, not the exception. They occur all the time. They occur even in cases where the subject is absolutely confident - even when the memory is a seemingly unforgettable flashbulb, one of those metaphorical mental photographs.

La pseudociencia colma necesidades emocionales poderosas que la ciencia suele dejar insatisfechas

It would seem that our intelligence is the source of our unhappiness in an almost literal way; but it would also imply that our unhappiness is the source of our strength as a species.

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred

Jean Baker Miller pointed out that the so-called need to control and dominate others is psychologically a function, not of a feeling of power, but of a feeling of powerlessness. Distinguishing between power for oneself and power over others, she writes: In a basic sense, the greater the development of each individual the more able, more effective, and less needy of limiting or restricting others she or he will be.

Creo que la antipatía es un sentimiento caprichoso y superficial que en el fondo no existe ni tiene razón de ser. En realidad casi nadie es antipático. Si se considera a las personas muy de cerca y se penetra con bondad en la esencia de su psicología, acabamos por admirar sus cualidades y tolerar sus defectos

It's more habit than stupidity when I laugh at these things. I laugh at them to stay a sane man.

Humans were predictable creatures. They were prisoners of their own emotions, unable to prevent themselves from repeating the same mistakes over and over.

In psychology experiments, women strongly prefer ugly men wearing Rolexes to handsome men wearing Burger King uniforms.

Place a loaded pistol in a playpen and the babies will play with it just like any other toy, giggle, and perhaps even place the gun in their mouth. In contrast, put a plastic snake into the playpen; the babies will cower in fear. Show a person of any age a snake —or even a picture of one —and you will elicit a dramatic response, including sweaty skin and an increased heart rate. It doesn't matter whether the person is in America, Europe, Japan, Australia, or Argentina

Even a good person can be swept up with the sentiments of a crowd and come to hold perverse beliefs.

Inside every sane person there's a madman struggling to get out, said the shopkeeper. That's what I've always thought. No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.

Insanity is catching.

Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference. There's no point in killing an opponent. That way, they won't know they've lost, and to be a real winner you have to have an opponent who is beaten and knows it. There's no triumph over a corpse, but a beaten opponent, who will remain beaten every day of the remainder of their sad and wretched life, is something to treasure.

She felt better for all that. A good shouting at somebody always makes you feel better and in control, especially if you aren't.

A good shouting at somebody always makes you feel better and in control, especially if you aren't.

Unexpressed emotion will be expressed somewhere, somehow, inside or out, most cruelly as unconscious aggression delivered with a smile or a poisonous cup of tea

I'm sorry to say that too often, I haven't a clue why people do things like this. Why they drown their babies or strangle their wives or shoot their coworkers. I see the results of their actions, but I can't tell you what sets them off. I just know that it happens. And people are capable of doing terrible things.