Concept Creep
When did Grief lose its capital G
You may have noticed more concepts and ideas from psychology entering our common language. I imagine this trend will increase unabated into the future. I discussed some of these ideas in the Substack article “The Three Body Problem”. Conditions such as PTSD, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and psychopathy are regularly discussed in the media and entertainment industry. More curious members of the public will attempt to do some research to gain a better understanding of these conditions. Many of us without this level of curiosity will walk around with some fundamental misunderstandings of these concepts.
On one level, I do welcome the idea of a society having more awareness and being more literate with ideas of mental health. On the other hand, it does concern me that there is a dilution of concepts, causing a loss in their meaning. This has led to an increase in self-diagnosis of psychological conditions, which can be supported and amplified by friends and family.
Professional Opinions
It is not just the public indulging in pop psychology; there is a malaise in how mental health professionals’ diagnoses are viewed. I had a 20-year teaching career in two different countries. I was exposed to all sorts of children with psychological conditions. A lot were in the school system without a diagnosis. I became a bit of an armchair psychologist like everyone else. ADHD is an example of a condition that many children are diagnosed with in school. Many experienced teachers would be able to identify genuine cases and would instigate interventions from educational psychologists to allow children more support in the classroom. However, as time has progressed, many students started to gain ADHD diagnoses from independent psychologists. So many that the level of ADHD was increasingly viewed with scepticism. This ultimately led to society doubting mental health professionals’ diagnoses.
We have landed in a place in which the public are suspicious of most other people’s diagnoses but want professionals’ validation for their own personal psychological conditions. Against this background, there is a subset of people who everyone agrees clearly have mental health conditions because their symptoms are so extreme. It is worth remembering that mental health and its treatment is an industry. Industries develop and become more complex systems over time. The industry must adapt to societal changes. The psychology industry is not in a steady state. It has evolved, and along with it, the language of psychology has changed.
Concept Creep
I have been concerned about these issues for several years (see this article). Luckily for me, someone had already thought and written about it. Nick Haslam is a Professor of Psychology based in Melbourne. Having been around for a while, he started to notice how the meaning of certain concepts in psychology was expanding. He called this idea concept creep. This is the phenomenon where the meaning of a word or phrase gradually changes and expands over time, encompassing more and more things. This can happen with any concept, but it's particularly noticeable with those related to harm, like "abuse" or "trauma." Trauma was initially used to describe the physical damage to the body from external forces. It was expanded to describe the emotional impact of extreme events. These days, the word can be legitimately used to describe a particularly stressful day at the office.
Concept creep can be said to be horizontal or vertical. Bullying is a good example of horizontal concept creep. This word used to describe physical aggression between children in a school setting. Now it can be used to describe serious workplace injustices or the tormenting of individuals we see online. Bullying has expanded its meaning to incorporate events in the workplace or cyberspace. The word's meaning has not been diluted but expanded into new and arguably more serious territory. Vertical creep broadens the definition of a serious issue to encompass less severe incidents. For example, in the context of abuse, this could mean expanding the definition from severe acts like physical or sexual assault to include microaggressions, such as addressing a mixed-gender group as "guys."
Challenges with Concept Creep
Concept creep causes the gradual broadening of a word's meaning. This can dilute its original impact and obscure distinctions between the various degrees of severity. This overuse of labels can minimise the significance of truly impactful experiences, potentially leading to the mischaracterisation of normal behavior as abnormal. Such misdiagnoses can result in the misallocation of public resources, spreading support too thinly rather than concentrating it on those most in need. Furthermore, this ambiguity in language hinders clear communication, particularly when precise terminology is crucial.
Additionally, concept creep can be used strategically for political or ideological purposes, manipulating the meaning of terms to advance specific agendas. Ultimately, the constant evolution of language through concept creep can erode trust in experts and institutions, as the shifting definitions of key terms may create the aforementioned scepticism and increased confusion.
Grief with a capital G
This idea is so important that it explains why grief can be so misunderstood. There is a Grief with a capital G. If you have experienced it, you will know it.
"Grief is the anguish experienced after significant loss, usually the death of a beloved person. Grief often includes physiological distress, separation anxiety, confusion, yearning, obsessive dwelling on the past, and apprehension about the future." The important words here are “usually the death of a beloved person…”. (American Psychological Association)
“Usually” has been stretched to incredulity. You can now grieve just about anything: a dead pet, a marriage, a job, an old house, your hair loss, or even the end of a TV show. When we are “Grieving”, it will feel terrible and quite unlike anything you have ever experienced before. Hopefully, this first-time experience will involve an elderly grandparent. The grieving process feels much deeper and a longer experience. It is difficult to accept, but we know this is the order of things.
I long for the days when the word “grief” was reserved for the loss of a loved one. Grief is a natural process that takes time. It is not a trivial experience, and it underscores our humanity. It is nice that we have people so special to us that if they are no longer here, it will leave a painful hole in your life that takes a long time to heal over. In my last article, I wrote about Prolonged Grief Disorder. We do know certain types of loss of a person well before their time can cause a very long, deep, and particularly painful grief experience. I almost think this disorder had to be invented to create a “hyper” grief, as the concept creep associated with grief, had devalued the word so much.