scientism

n. an uncritical commitment to a particular view of science and scientific methods that leads its adherents to dismiss all other approaches as intellectually invalid. The term is mainly used by those who criticize the assumptions of Western science as arrogant or flawed, who maintain that scientific methods are inappropriate in certain fields or incapable of apprehending certain kinds of truth, or who reject the implication that all philosophical questions will one day reduce to scientific questions. —scientistic adj.

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Psychology term of the day

December 26th 2024

false self

in the object relations theory of British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott (1896–1971), the self that develops as a defense against impingements and in adaptation to the environment. This contrasts with the true self, which develops in an environment that adapts to the infant and allows him or her to discover and express true impulses.