There is some sort of psychological effect/syndrome/behaviour that happens when somebody talks about some weakness, IDK, wifebeating, drinking, who knows. So, as I understand it, there is some sort of effect that tells one’s brain that since they have talked about it, they have taken vast steps to improve it, if not totally fixed the problem.
What is the name of this effect?
Thanks,
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Catharsis, perhaps?
Holding a secret can be hurtful; relieving the hurt by telling the secret can be therapeutic. Not always, but sometimes.
I’ve never heard of anyone claiming that. I have heard people say things to the effect that “It’s been discussed, I’m working on it, there’s no point in discussing it further.” I’ve also heard people falsely claim that they had stopped/changed the destructive behavior, but that’s not the same as claiming just talking fixed the problem.
Something I have seen mentioned is the habit of bureaucratic organizations treating a problem as fixed just because they documented it.
Well, as I understand it, it is a psychological mechanism. I also understand (for what that’s worth) that it has been tested.
To expand on it, it works like this:
handsomeharry is a wife beating drunk. hh says “Yeah, I do have a problem. (at this point the mechanism kicks in) I’m going to make an appt to get therapy.”
hh’s psyche/unconscious/whatever, however says "There’s no need to get the therapy, since the problem has already been addressed. Actually, now, there’s no need to bother doing anything at all. "
I’ve witnessed, I think, a light version of this a few times in my life. Particularly in weak-willed people. Not necessarily weak-willed because of their bad behavior, but, because they run their mouths about their weaknesses, wearing their hearts on their sleeves, whining that they need to change, and then do nothing about it.
Another example is, say, someone who decides they want to write a novel.
You’d think that telling others your plan would be helpful. That with friends and relatives constantly asking you “Hey, how’s that book going?” you’d have more impetus to get going.
But the last data I saw on this topic suggested that no, in fact telling others makes people less likely to succeed at their goal. It’s thought to be because telling someone you’re going to do X takes some of the psychological burden away, and makes you feel a little bit like you’ve already made progress.
It’s particularly harmful if you tell people before you’ve even got started.
Maybe this phenomenon doesn’t have a name…it does after all go against some conventional wisdom.
(of course all of this is different from the concept of telling other people your problems, fears, skeletons in your closet etc, which is of course beneficial)
Of all places NASA did (or at least sorta did) just that.
They KNEW something was amiss with the solid rocket motor o rings. The would have something along the lines of “flight plan reviews” I forget the exact name. In such things a large group of people goes over all the details and dangers of the upcoming launch.
Somewhere in that list the O rings were noted as having a leaking problem.
It was noted and they moved on :smack:
Or at least that is how I recall it in Richard Feynman’s book about the investigation.
Also reminds me of my mother. I did what some people considered risky stuff. She worried of course and reminded me to “be safe”. To “be safe” you need to actually have a plan on how to do that. A mindset to “be safe” often won’t take you very far at a all. Also, there were things SHE could actually do to make things safer for me, but she didn’t seem particularly interested in those…
This is actually a common “feature” in government and corporate risk management mechanisms. Working on the government side, if you look at the Risk Management Framework (formerly DIACAP), the documentation required for securing systems includes, basically, “we know this is all jacked up… we’ll get to it later… just fire it up.” Once you’ve done that, it’s like admitting you have a pimple.
Sometimes, this is a necessary or acceptable approach. There’s no such thing as a perfect system, and (at least internally) it’s useful to acknowledge things that need fixing. OTOH, if it’s something like “we have no input validation and the web interface gives unrestricted access to a SQL back-end” well, that’s when I throw my pen in the air and slam my face on the table.
If I’m understanding this correctly, the OP is just wondering if this phenomenon has a name. A name being, of course, what we use to talk about a thing. And having thus established that, he’ll be satisfied.
I have heard something like Mijin describes, as advice given to aspiring writers: if you talk to people about what you plan to write, it dissipates the desire/drive to actually write it.
Hey, we have talked about it. Hasn’t that solved his problem? 
There is a related behaviour I was reading about recently called “pre-crastination”. Basically a desire to take some step towards a solution, even though holding off and taking a more sensible step later would result in a better overall solution.
The example they use in the article is carrying one of two heavy buckets from different positions to the end of a walkway (where you start at the start of the walkway). The sensible thing to do is take the bucket that is nearer to the end, so you don’t have to carry it as far. The thing most people do is take the bucket that is closer to them at the start, even though they have to carry it farther, because they’ve “done something” sooner.
In the OP’s case, “talking about it” is the early bucket that gives a “done something” buzz.
A close cousin of this is “this issue isn’t new, therefore its not an issue” fallacy. I see this talked about on the ex-mormon subreddit frequently.
When a doubter points out the existence of some major incongruity in the dogma, believers tend to reflexively point out that this seeming incongruity has been known about forever and found to not really be a problem. But when ask to explain the basis for this determination, the believer can not do it. It’s just easier to assume that because the issue has been brought up before, someone in a position of authority must have effectively negated it, problem solved, nothing to see here, folks.
In the OP’s situation, the old saying that admitting a problem is the first step to fixing it seems to apply.
I thought we were going to talk about my boss who solves issues at the speed of thought. * I’ve laid out the plan, now go and implement it. * It’s pretty common in engineering, just read Dilbert.
We also have things called DFMEA and PFMEA were we think of all potential Design and Process failure modes (like the NASA O-ring issue) and work through corrective scenarios in order to mitigate (reduce) risk to an acceptable level. It’s called Design/Process Failure Mode Effects and Analysis.
This effect, whatever it’s called, operates even within the privacy of the individual brain, AFAICT.
That is, if you suddenly remember something you need to do but then don’t do it right away, you are likely to forget to do it. The memory sends one reminder and then ignores the issue. A sort of intra-brain version of “it was mentioned, therefore it was taken care of”.
I think the terminology that describes this phenomenon concerns the interaction between “implementation intentions” and “goal intentions”.
The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions
So what the OP is describing should technically be called something like implementation intentions negatively affecting goal attainment. I.e., you’ve formed an intention to take a specific action to help attain your stated goal, but the act of specifying that intention has not increased and maybe has even decreased your actual motivation to attain the goal.
Apparently this effect has been studied:
Yes it has a name. Self deception.
I’ve heard the Rumpelstiltskin Principle described as relating to the power of addressing something or someone by their name.
So I guess what the OP describes could be called the False Rumpelstiltskin Principle.
yeah cause Dr Phil requires a verb…
you Dr Phill’ed…
In the current area, “Domestic violence starts with a man saying a woman is wrong”, “Motherboard statement” is also a thing… as per Dr Phil, the woman can emote emote emote and all the man can do is confess.
This is really common with weightloss as well. Just by telling someone about your plans to get in shape or lose weight, causes you to lose the motivation to do so. Your brain rewards you with good feelings for making the pronouncement, so you don’t actually have to follow through. Sometimes it becomes harder and harder for people to follow through on losing weight once other people start to notice and give positive comments as well.