I went through a phase of picking up contemporary psychological jargon. I used the jargon to conceal what I meant.
Abandoned meant left.
Abusive meant disagreeable.
Being kind to oneself meant idleness.
Boundaries meant bossing around.
Confronting meant criticising.
Defence mechanisms meant moral failings.
Disassociated meant serene.
Gaslit meant contradicted.
Gentle (of the programme) meant postponement.
Ghosted meant ignored.
Grief meant self-pity.
Honest meant cruel.
Narcissistic (of a person) meant resisting my orders.
Offensive meant different.
Outreach meant telephoning.
People-pleasing meant manipulation and sycophancy.
Processing meant obsessing.
Qualifier meant person I’m demonising.
Safe (of people) meant agreeing with me.
Sick (of people) meant being flawed.
Sitting with feelings meant moping.
Toxic (of people) meant unpleasant.
Truth (my) meant my subjective impression.
Traumatised meant immature.
Triggers meant things happening.
Unsafe (of people) meant disagreeing with me.
Violated meant obstructed.
Vulnerable meant honest.
And finally, ‘it’s a selfish programme’ meant I need to brush my teeth and get to bed on time.
I now find it better to call a spade a spade.