Psychological Slurs

Terms that use mental health concepts as generic insults to imply instability, irrationality, or weakness. These slurs (e.g., "You're paranoid," "She's hysterical," "That's psychotic," "Don't be so borderline") take serious clinical conditions and deploy them to dismiss emotional reactions, legitimate concerns, or unconventional beliefs. They are the modern equivalent of calling someone "insane" to win an argument, and they massively contribute to the stigma around mental illness by making diagnoses synonymous with being wrong or unhinged.

Example: A community organizer expresses passionate, urgent concern about a local environmental hazard. A corporate representative, aiming to discredit them, tells the media the organizer is "histrionic" and "prone to panic attacks," subtly framing their advocacy as a symptom of mental instability rather than a reasoned response to threat. The slur pathologizes justified emotion and civic engagement, shifting the discussion from "is there a hazard?" to "is the complainant sound of mind?" Psychological Slurs.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Psychological Bigotry

The pervasive bias that equates mental health diagnoses with diminished credibility, rationality, or moral agency. It operates on the assumption that if someone has a psychiatric label (e.g., depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder), their perceptions, memories, and opinions are inherently less reliable or valuable. This leads to "diagnostic overshadowing," where any physical symptom a patient with a mental health history reports is automatically attributed to their psychology, often with tragic medical consequences.

Example: A military veteran with a PTSD diagnosis goes to the ER with acute chest pain. The triage nurse, seeing the PTSD in the chart, assumes it's a panic attack and deprioritizes them. The pain is actually a heart attack, leading to a critical delay. The psychological bigotry here is the automatic inference that the mental health condition explains and devalues the physical complaint. It creates a two-tiered system of believability where the "mentally ill" are presumed to be unreliable narrators of their own bodily experience. Psychological Bigotry.

by Dumuabzu January 25, 2026

Spacetime-Probability Psychology

The clinical application of five-dimensional principles to mental health, proposing that many psychological disorders are actually branch-selection problems. Depression isn't a chemical imbalance; it's being stuck in probability branches where everything seems hopeless. Anxiety isn't excessive worry; it's hyperawareness of all the terrible branches that exist alongside this one. And imposter syndrome? That's just accurate perception of the branches where you actually are a fraud, combined with confusion about which branch you're currently occupying. Spacetime-probability psychology doesn't try to change your thoughts; it tries to help you shift to better probability branches, using techniques like "branch visualization," "probability anchoring," and "therapeutic branch-switching." The success rate is difficult to measure, as patients tend to remember only the branches where therapy worked.

Spacetime-Probability Psychology Example: "His spacetime-probability therapist diagnosed his anxiety as 'chronic branch-bleed'—he was too aware of all the terrible possibilities in adjacent probability branches. The treatment involved 'branch-focusing exercises' to help him stay anchored in less-terrifying coordinates. After six months, he was less anxious but deeply paranoid about the version of himself that was still anxious in another branch. The therapist considered this progress."

by Abzugal February 14, 2026

N-Dimensional Psychology

The clinical application of N-dimensional principles to mental health, proposing that psychological disorders are often dimensional misalignments rather than purely 3D problems. Depression might be a disconnection from higher-dimensional perspectives where things look brighter. Anxiety might be hyperawareness of threatening possibilities across all dimensions. And existential dread? That's just accurate perception of your insignificance across infinite dimensions, which is technically true but not clinically helpful. N-dimensional psychology doesn't just treat the 3D symptoms; it attempts to realign the patient with their healthier dimensional aspects, a process complicated by the fact that those aspects exist in dimensions the patient can't access. The success rate is difficult to measure, as patients in successful branches tend to forget they were ever troubled.

N-Dimensional Psychology *Example: "His N-dimensional psychologist diagnosed his chronic dissatisfaction as 'dimensional constriction'—he was only experiencing the 3D slice of his life, ignoring the infinite other dimensions where he was actually quite happy. The treatment involved 'dimensional expansion exercises' to help him access those perspectives. After six months, he was still unhappy in this dimension, but deeply comforted by the knowledge that in some other dimension, he was thriving. The psychologist called this 'dimensional acceptance.'"*

by Dumu The Void February 14, 2026

Psychology of the Masses in the 21st Century

The study of how large populations think, feel, and behave in an era defined by social media, information overload, and algorithmic curation. Unlike 20th-century mass psychology, which focused on physical crowds and broadcast media, 21st-century mass psychology must account for people who are simultaneously connected and isolated, scrolling alone together, forming tribes without ever meeting. The key insights: attention is the scarce resource, outrage is the most reliable engagement metric, and identity has become a series of performances for invisible audiences. Mass psychology now explains phenomena like viral misinformation (emotion spreads faster than facts), cancel culture (digital mobs with infinite memory), and political polarization (algorithms that show you what you already believe). It's the psychology of people who are more connected than ever and more lonely than ever, which is exactly what the algorithms want.

Example: "She studied the psychology of the masses in the 21st century and realized her phone was designed to exploit every vulnerability—outrage for engagement, fear for attention, belonging for loyalty. She wasn't using social media; social media was using her. She didn't delete it—knowing isn't the same as escaping—but she started noticing when she was being played."

by Dumu The Void February 16, 2026

Psychology of the Crowds in the 21st Century

The study of how physically assembled groups behave in an era when crowds are simultaneously physical and digital—protesters with phones streaming to millions, concert-goers creating TikTok moments, flash mobs organized online and executed in person. 21st-century crowd psychology must account for the fact that every crowd is now a broadcast, every participant a potential journalist, every moment potentially viral. This transforms crowd behavior: people perform for remote audiences, organizers coordinate through encrypted apps, and authorities face scrutiny from millions watching live. The psychology is more complex, more reflexive, more mediated than ever. A crowd today isn't just a crowd; it's a story being written in real time, by everyone in it and everyone watching.

Psychology of the Crowds in the 21st Century *Example: "The protest was a textbook case of 21st-century crowd psychology—thousands in the streets, millions watching online, chants designed for both immediate impact and viral spread. The crowd knew it was being watched and performed accordingly. The authorities knew they were being watched and hesitated. The psychology wasn't just about the people present; it was about everyone who would see the footage later."*

by Dumu The Void February 16, 2026

Psychology of the Masses of the Third Millennium

The emerging study of how mass psychology will evolve in the next thousand years, assuming we make it that far. The third millennium will face challenges that make current mass psychology look simple: artificial intelligences that shape opinion better than any human propagandist, virtual realities that make consensus reality optional, genetic and cybernetic enhancements that fragment human experience into subspecies. Mass psychology will have to account for audiences that aren't entirely human, for truths that are algorithmically generated, for communities that exist only in simulation. The psychology of the masses of the third millennium is speculative now, but the trends are clear: more fragmentation, more mediation, more manipulation. The masses of the future may not even know they're masses, living in personalized bubbles that feel like universes.

Psychology of the Masses of the Third Millennium Example: "He read about the psychology of the masses of the third millennium and realized it was already starting—AI-generated news, personalized realities, communities that never meet in person. The future wasn't coming; it was here, just unevenly distributed. He looked at his phone, curated to show him exactly what he wanted to see, and wondered if he was already living in someone's prediction."

by Dumu The Void February 16, 2026