Philosophy &amp; Psychology

Archetype

A recurring template — character, image, story — held to be shared across cultures.

Attachment Styles

A typology of how people relate in close relationships: secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized.

Ego

The conscious self — or, casually, an inflated sense of self-importance.

Existential Crisis

A moment when one's sense of meaning, identity, or purpose collapses.

God Is Dead

Nietzsche's claim that traditional religious belief no longer grounds Western culture — and the consequences are about to be enormous.

Hubris

Self-confidence so excessive it invites destruction.

I Think, Therefore I Am

Descartes' bedrock proof that he exists, because he's thinking.

Machiavellian

Cunning, manipulative, and willing to do whatever is necessary to retain power.

Narcissism

Excessive self-focus or self-love, often at the expense of others.

Nihilism

The view that life has no inherent meaning, purpose, or moral order.

Occam's Razor

When several explanations fit, prefer the simplest one.

Persona

The face one presents to the world, distinct from the inner self.

Platonic

Affectionate but non-sexual — used most often of close friendships.

Shadow Self

Jung's term for the parts of the personality a person refuses to acknowledge.

Stockholm Syndrome

A captive's emotional bond with their captor.

Catharsis

Emotional release through experiencing art — especially tragedy.

Cosmos

The ordered universe — the opposite of chaos.

character

Marcus Aurelius

The philosopher emperor whose private notebook became a foundational Stoic text.

Memento Mori

A reminder of mortality intended to focus the mind on what matters.

Plato's Cave

An allegory for living inside an illusion you mistake for reality.

Sisyphean

Endlessly repetitive and futile.

character

Sisyphus

The king condemned to roll a boulder uphill forever, only for it to roll back each time.

The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell's universal storytelling template: call, refusal, mentor, threshold, trials, return.

A Priori / A Posteriori

Knowledge derived before experience versus from experience.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Aristotle's three modes of persuasion: credibility, emotion, and logic.

Gestalt

The whole is something other than the sum of its parts.

Nietzschean

Reflecting Friedrich Nietzsche's themes: will to power, the death of God, the overcoming of conventional morality.

Oedipus Complex

Freud's theory that young boys feel unconscious desire for their mother and rivalry with their father.

Tabula Rasa

A blank slate, especially as a starting condition.

The Absurd

Camus's term for the clash between humans' search for meaning and a universe that offers none.

Übermensch

Nietzsche's figure of someone who creates their own values after the death of God.