Psychological Puritanism

A purity culture within communities that treat psychological frameworks as the exclusive lens for understanding human experience, where proper psychological thinking becomes a test of virtue and belonging. Psychological puritanism demands that true members analyze all human phenomena through approved psychological concepts, treat alternative frameworks (social, political, economic) as insufficiently deep, and police the boundaries of acceptable psychological discourse relentlessly. Members are judged by their psychological sophistication, their correct use of terminology, their willingness to find psychological explanations for everything. The result is a community that claims to understand human beings while systematically ignoring everything about humans that isn't psychology.

Example: "She tried to discuss structural inequality, but the group kept redirecting to 'childhood trauma' and 'attachment styles'—Psychological Puritanism, where every problem must be psychological to be real."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026

Psychiatric Puritanism

A purity culture within communities that elevate psychiatric diagnosis as the primary framework for understanding human difference and distress, where proper diagnostic thinking becomes a test of virtue and belonging. Psychiatric puritanism demands that true members understand all human variation through diagnostic categories, treat non-psychiatric frameworks as naive or unscientific, and maintain the purity of diagnostic boundaries against contamination by alternative approaches. Members compete to demonstrate their diagnostic sophistication, their ability to spot pathology everywhere, their commitment to the medical model against all challenges. The result is a community that claims to help the suffering while pathologizing all human variation and dismissing any approach that doesn't fit diagnostic categories.

Example: "They diagnosed everyone who disagreed with them—not clinically, just as a way of dismissing difference. Psychiatric Puritanism: using the language of diagnosis to police the boundaries of acceptable humanity."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026

Cognitive Puritanism

A purity culture within communities that elevate cognitive science as the master framework for understanding mind and behavior, where proper cognitive thinking becomes a test of virtue and belonging. Cognitive puritanism demands that true members explain all mental phenomena in terms of cognitive processes, treat appeals to emotion, culture, or experience as insufficiently rigorous, and maintain the purity of cognitive explanations against contamination by alternative frameworks. Members compete to demonstrate their cognitive sophistication, their freedom from bias, their commitment to the cognitive model against all challenges. The result is a community that claims to understand thinking while being blind to everything about thought that isn't computation.

Example: "The group dismissed her embodied, situated account of knowledge as 'unscientific'—Cognitive Puritanism, where only information-processing models count as real explanations of mind."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026

Objectivity Puritanism

A purity culture within communities that treat objectivity as not just a goal but an identity marker and test of belonging. Objectivity puritanism demands that true members demonstrate their freedom from bias, their commitment to neutral truth, their transcendence of mere perspective—while systematically exempting their own community from such scrutiny. Members compete to demonstrate their objectivity by condemning the bias of others, perform neutrality while taking sides, claim the view from nowhere while being thoroughly situated. The result is a community that claims to be uniquely free from the distortions that affect everyone else, using "objectivity" as a weapon of exclusion rather than a tool for clearer seeing. The irony is that objectivity puritanism is itself a form of bias—the bias of believing oneself unbiased.

Example: "They claimed to be 'just presenting the facts' while systematically excluding any perspective that challenged their own—Objectivity Puritanism, using the language of neutrality to protect orthodoxy from examination."

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 14, 2026

These New Puritans

Really dull arty alternative band from England. Their second album Hidden is beyond boring with almost no melody or decent tunes in sight. Yet, this album was critically acclaimed by delusional critics, dreadful stuff.

Friend 1: "Hey man, you heard that new These New Puritans album?"

Friend 2: "Yeah, its awful shite isn't it?"

Friend 1: "Absolutely, let us never talk about it again"

by freeflow July 20, 2012

Elitist of Purity

Somebody that is considered elite for withholding from any form of sexual relations past the age of 18, even while expressing extreme desire.

"Hey Andrew! Did you and the chick smash?"
"Nah man, I'm an Elitist of Purity. That shit is weak."

by Pleenb44 November 8, 2019

Status-Quo Purity

The aggressive policing of any deviation from established norms and traditions, punishing even mild reforms as contaminating a supposedly pristine, stable system. This goes beyond resistance to change; it's an active crusade to purge "impure" elements—be it new cultural ideas, technologies, or social roles—to maintain a frozen, idealized version of the past. The goal is a museum-diorama society, sterilized of dynamism.

*Example: "The neighborhood association was a cult of status-quo purity. They fined a homeowner for a non-beige mailbox, fought a new bike lane as a 'moral decay vector,' and demanded the book club remove a novel published after 1995. Their mission wasn't stability; it was the militant preservation of a specific, curated year no one actually lived in."*

by AbzuInExile January 31, 2026