Psychobabble

Borderline Personality Disorder is routinely explained as trauma response. In this episode, I look at the evidence behind that assumption. It matters because bad causal stories produce bad therapy. Become a Psychobabble Insider and join us for Live Clinical Sessions twice a month! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

Are we misdiagnosing female predators as "patients"?In this video, I explore a provocative but clinically grounded theory: that Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is often the female expression of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). While we have no trouble identifying the "Language of Force" in the male predator, society often falls for the "Language of the Heart" when it comes to women.Using the viral case of a young woman named Deja, I break down the Strategic Regression and Tactical Tantrums used to establish affective dominance over others. We move past the "victim-patient" model to restore the dignity of agency, analyzing how hyper-neuroticism can be used as a weapon system. I also released the full recording of our latest clinical live session with Tom Golden, where we unpack why men don't process grief the way modern psychology assumes and what actually works instead. It's one of those discussions that shifts how you interpret behaviour almost immediately. If you've ever felt that the standard framework doesn't quite fit, this is worth watching. You can access it here (paid subscribers), and the next live session is on April 12th with Jim Nuzzo, focusing on a practical approach to men's health. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

ADHD is officially classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder: a lifelong brain condition said to be present from birth. But despite decades of research, there is still no biomarker, no diagnostic brain scan, and no consistent neurological abnormality that can reliably distinguish an "ADHD brain" from a normal one.In this video, I examine why adult ADHD diagnoses have surged, especially among women, and why the evidence increasingly suggests that what we call adult ADHD maps far more closely onto extreme personality traits than to a discrete brain disorder. Become a Psychobabble Insider and join us Saturday the 28th of March at 2 PM Eastern for a Live Clinical Session on helping men grieve with Tom Golden! 0:00 The Appeal of an ADHD Diagnosis and Redemption0:38 Questioning ADHD as a Neurodevelopmental Disorder1:29 Initial Red Flags in ADHD Diagnosis Narratives2:10 The Four Archetypes of ADHD Prevalence3:32 The Expanding Umbrella of ADHD Subtypes4:15 ADHD Diagnosis: Lack of Biomarkers or Brain Scans4:56 Challenging the 'Neurodivergent' Claim in ADHD5:53 Brain Volume Differences: Personality Traits vs. Pathology6:39 Environmental and Cultural Impact on ADHD Rates7:32 Women's Self-Diagnosis and the Hereditary Link8:23 Personality Traits as Predictors of Life Outcomes9:02 Deconstructing 'ADHD Symptoms' as Extreme Extroversion11:28 Impulsivity and Distractibility: Low Conscientiousness13:10 Fidgeting, Anxiety, and Mood Swings: Neuroticism14:19 Adaptive Task Switching vs. Fixation: Openness16:20 The Concept of 'Symptom Masking' and Emotional Pain17:58 The 'Anxious, Scattered Mother' and Personality Profiles19:55 Adult ADHD as a Manifestation of Extreme Personality20:25 Psychiatry's Influence on Cultural Expectations This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

Obesity is increasingly explained through hormones, genetics, metabolism, and microbiomes. These explanations sound compassionate, scientific, and non-judgmental — but they often fail to explain what we actually observe and definitely fail those who want to lose weight. Become a Psychobabble Insider and join us this Saturday the 14th of March at 3 PM Eastern for a Live Clinical Session on psychiatric medication! 00:00 The Hard Truth: Obesity Is Psychological01:57 Lie #1: The "Slow Metabolism" Alibi02:51 The Truth About Thyroid Issues04:40 Lie #2: The "Fat Gene" & Family Habits06:58 Lie #3: The Microbiome "God of the Gaps"10:10 Lie #4: The Starvation Mode Myth14:30 Why Your Skinny Friend Stays Thin15:50 Insulin: Signals vs. Calories16:50 The "Food Noise" & GLP-1 (Ozempic)22:50 Conclusion: The Alcoholism Comparison This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

I explain how traits once understood as borderline pathology were gradually laundered into bipolar disorder — through expanding criteria, rapid cycling, and the replacement of personality with biology.This isn't about denying suffering.It's about why diagnosis matters, how boundaries collapsed, and what it costs. Upgrade and join us this Saturday the 28th of Febuary at 3 pm Eastern for the next Live Clinical Case Session on psychiatric medications: When, How and How to Taper Safely. 00:00 – How mania is portrayed01:00 – What real mania actually looks like03:40 – Performative emotion vs psychosis05:45 – Why mania isn't happiness07:30 – What real bipolar patients experience09:10 – Diagnosis as moral status10:00 – Rapid cycling and diagnostic collapse12:30 – Borderline traits relabeled as bipolar15:10 – Why psychiatry prefers bipolar This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

In this video, I walk through three everyday patterns in which narcissistic traits are reframed as vulnerability, self-awareness, or moral superiority and therefore escape recognition altogether. From self-diagnosis culture to parenting ideology, these behaviours are often praised rather than named appropriately.I also make an important distinction between Munchausen by proxy and the narcissistic mother, two dynamics that are frequently conflated, but psychologically and motivationally very different.This is not about demonising women or dismissing genuine mental health struggles. It's about understanding how certain traits gain social immunity by wearing the language of care, suffering, and insight, and why that makes them so difficult to name. Psychobabble's free material focuses on helping people recognize psychological patterns. The paid tier is a different kind of work: twice a month you are invited to join our clinical case sessions live video, where we work though a concrete situation together. Focusing on applying psychological insight. Episode Chapters: 00:00 Why This Is Never Called Narcissism02:18 Narcissism That Looks Like Vulnerability06:12 Self-Diagnosis as Status and Shield12:04 Munchausen by Proxy vs. the Narcissistic Mother18:47 Gentle Parenting and Moral Superiority25:36 Why This Pattern Is So Hard to Name Psychobabble Insider Interview: The Four Horsewomen of Modern FeminismA conversation with David Maywald on misandry, gamma bias, gynocentrism, and gaslighting, and how these cultural forces shape therapy culture, family dynamics, and emotional double standards. Upcoming Live SessionThis Saturday, 31st January at 2 PM Eastern, I'll be hosting a live clinical case session with Luella Jonk, PhD, on couples therapy: "When She Says She's Done."A real-time analysis of emotional withdrawal, shutdown, resentment, and what actually happens in relationships when one partner disengages. Please join in the conversation! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

This episode sits very deliberately at the "how do I deal with this?" level. It's for people who find themselves repeatedly destabilised in relationships marked by manipulation, emotional volatility, and confusion — and who are tired of being told to simply communicate better, be more empathetic, or search for faults that aren't actually there. As the year comes to a close, I wanted to write a brief note about Psychobabble. What many of you have responded to most strongly, and how I'm shaping the project going forward. What I've enjoyed most over the past weeks, especially through the live sessions, is how concrete and personal these conversations have become. When people bring real situations, real patterns, real moments of confusion, the psychological mechanisms stop being abstract. They become recognisable. And once they're recognisable, they become manageable. That experience has pushed me to think carefully about how Psychobabble should evolve. All essays and podcast episodes will remain free on Psychobabble — orientation pieces, cultural psychology, and broader analyses that help make sense of what's happening around us. I want the ideas themselves to circulate widely, and that won't change. Paid Psychobabble, however, is becoming the place where we go deeper together. This is where we'll work carefully through psychological mechanisms as they actually present in real life. Going forward, you'll have access to twice‑monthly live clinical case sessions — a single, ongoing space where we work through real (composite and anonymised) cases tied to recent essays and episodes, take questions, and focus on precision. You'll have access to the full recording after, in case you missed the session. In addition, the paid tier will include in‑depth, members‑only interviews with academics and authors that expand on the clinical and cultural themes, but differ from the regular public episodes. If you're a paid subscriber, nothing is being taken away. What's changing is focus and intentionality. I want to create a clearly defined space for shared investigation and practical understanding. Where clinically specific material — the kind that helps people orient themselves in difficult, personal situations — can be handled properly, with context and care. I'm genuinely excited about this direction! The live sessions have shown me what becomes possible when this work is done in a more contained, collaborative way and I'm looking forward to building that out further in the coming year. To those of you who read, comment, restack, share, challenge, and support this work — whether as free readers or paid subscribers — thank you! I wish you a thoughtful and steady start to the New Year. Warmly,Hannah This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Rob Henderson author of Troubled and originator of the concept luxury beliefs: ideas that raise the status of the elites while harming the people with the least margin for error.But today we look at something he's rarely asked to unpack: the female side of luxury beliefs. 00:00 – Introduction & Who Is Rob Henderson?01:13 – What Luxury Beliefs Really Are02:17 – Are There Female Luxury Beliefs?04:08 – COVID Softness & Lowering Standards06:55 – Feminine Teaching Norms and Real-World Harm09:03 – Learning Loss: Who Paid the Price?12:06 – Daycare, Working-Class Mothers & Elite Hypocrisy13:09 – "Walk the 50s, Talk the 60s"18:13 – Compassion in Public, Authoritarian at Home22:08 – "All Families Are Equal" as a Luxury Belief30:44 – Marriage Collapse & Class Inequality31:08 – Rob's Upbringing and the Need for Structure32:36 – Would Conscription Fix Fatherlessness?37:21 – How Female Norms Shape Male Mental Health39:01 – Dani Slikowski & Elite Female Competition40:18 – The Impossible Standards Set by Elite Women42:49 – "Men Should Be More Emotional" as a Luxury Belief44:04 – Does Feminism Hurt Women the Most?47:29 – Boys Are More Hurt by Instability Than Girls Upgrade, become a Psychobabble Insider and follow us over to the extended conversation! You will also have access to the full Psychobabble gallery, the chat, live streams, more essays and more exclusive insights! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we trace the evolution of Women's Studies — the ideological factory floor where feminist theory manufactures its ever-expanding vocabulary. From the early days of academic grievance studies to today's buzzwords like microfeminism, hermeneutic labor, and kin-keeping, we examine how each new term tries to keep the ideology alive in a world that has stopped taking it seriously. What supposedly began as a movement for equality has become a language of perpetual victimhood and we're unpacking how that happened, one feminist neologism at a time. 👉 Click below to continue the conversation — upgrade and become a Psychobabble Insider for access to exclusive bonus episodes, live video sessions, in-depth essays, and our private community chat. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

One in four American adults is now estranged from their parents, and most aren't cutting contact over abuse, but ideology. In this conversation with Noelle Mering author of Awake, Not Woke and the forthcoming No Contact, we discuss why so many young adults are severing ties with family. Psychobabble's free material focuses on helping people recognize psychological patterns. The paid tier is a different kind of work: twice a month you are invited to join our clinical case sessions live video, where we work though a concrete situation together. Focusing on applying psychological insight. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

In this special joint episode of Psychobabble and Men Are Good, Tom Golden, Janice Fiamengo, and I take on The Diary of a CEO's viral "feminism debate" featuring Louise Perry, Erica Komisar, and Deborah Frances-White. This debate has racked up millions of views across one of the world's most influential podcast and YouTube platforms. With over 12 million subscribers and more than a billion streams, host Steven Bartlett commands global reach and cultural clout. It was framed as a bold debate on feminism and widely sold as a serious "clash of ideas." A feminist reckoning. But we had to ask: was it really? Should we feel grateful to feminism—if so, for what? Is feminism something that started good and went bad? Are we seeing a pendulum swing? We also break down the episode's obsession with autonomy, the cult of consent, and why "what women want" is the wrong foundation for a social ethic. 👉 Click below to join the rest of the conversation—where it really heats up. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hannahspier.substack.com In the extended, members-only segment, we get to the heart of what's at stake: not just the corruption of psychology as a discipline, but the cultural normalization of pathology itself. * The spread of Cluster B traits and their impact on society * Why diagnoses like ADHD and autism are being rebranded through the neurodiversity movement * How popular disorders…

In this episode of Psychobabble, we take a scalpel to the modern autism diagnosis, tracing its dramatic expansion from a severe childhood disorder to a catch-all identity for anxious, rigid adults. Let's examine how psychiatric gatekeeping has failed, how ideology has overtaken evidence, and how terms like "neurodivergent" are used more to shield than to clarify. Not to mention, the ethical costs of this diagnostic inflation. (Navigate to your topic of interest by using the timestamps below.) Upgrade today, become a Psychobabble Insider and join us as we break down what proper treatment should look like for real autism and what it doesn't look like. How therapy supported by the neurodivergent movement plays right into the hands of Cluster B types. We also have a look at the controversial MMR vaccine narrative and its enduring link to autism discourse. Chapter Titles & Timestamps: * 00:00 – The Trauma of Being Autistic * 00:20 – From Disorder to Identity * 01:20 – How the DSM Changed Everything * 04:02 – The Rise of Spectrum Thinking * 07:14 – Self-Diagnosis and the Influence of Pop Culture * 08:12 – Neurodiversity: A Social Movement, Not a Medical One * 10:27 – Sensory Overwhelm or Narcissistic Fragility? * 13:33 – When Inclusion Becomes Exclusion * 14:02 – Autism as a Personal Gospel * 15:59 – Autistic Traits or Personality Quirks? * 18:48 – Autism vs. TikTok * 20:08 – What Real Autism Looks Like * 24:26 – Theories of Autistic Cognition * 27:52 – The Role of Activism in Diagnosis * 30:19 – The Double Empathy Problem Debunked * 33:01 – The Masking Myth * 36:46 – How Cluster B traits reveal themselves * 40:42 – Autism as Status * 44:27 – Who Benefits from Broad Diagnoses? * 46:42 – Why Accurate Diagnosis Matters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hannahspier.substack.com/subscribe