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overtraining syndrome

in the context of sport or exercise, the unwanted physical and mental effects, collectively, of training beyond the individual’s capacities. Characteristic symptoms include decreased performance, increased ease of tiring, loss of motivation, emotional instability, inability to concentrate, and increased susceptibility to injury and infection. See burnout.

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Psychology term of the day

March 12th 2025

deconstruction

deconstruction

n. a form of critical analysis of literary texts and philosophical positions that is based on the twin assumptions that there can be no firm referents for language and no adequate grounding for truth claims. Although deconstruction challenges the fundamental grounds of the Western philosophical tradition, it recognizes that both the tools and the motivation for doing so arise from that very tradition. A deconstructive reading of a text will generally use traditional analytical methods to expose the innumerable ways in which the text subverts its own claims to meaning and coherence. In much general usage, the term is now taken to be synonymous with the destruction of an idea or a truth claim. See also poststructuralism. [introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)] —deconstruct vb. —deconstructive adj.