by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n
People used to use the phrase “reverse psychology” more than they do now. I suppose I act out reverse psychology a lot these days. I don’t, however, of it in those terms. I think of my actions in vastly different terms.<\/strong><\/p>\n People used to say the phrase that sits atop this post. If you wanted someone to do X, tell them to do Y, and they will do X because they just want to goad you.<\/p>\n Somehow, I still use reverse psychology, but it isn’t the same. For example, I want someone to feel comfortable with me, to spend time with me. When they tell me they are going away for a while, I tell them, “Great. That sounds like a good thing to do. I hope you enjoy it.” They go away, enjoy themselves, and come back and spend more time with me.<\/p>\n Reverse psychology?<\/p>\n How about describing it this way: I want the best for them. I want them to enjoy their choices. They appreciate that and show their appreciation.<\/p>\n Reverse psychology?<\/p>\n I don’t think so. I think it is simply a gesture of good will and best wishes. Things seem to work for the best when I live that way – wanting the best for the other person.<\/p>\n Reverse psychology?<\/p>\n Maybe, but probably not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Dwayne Phillips People used to use the phrase “reverse psychology” more than they do now. I suppose I act out reverse psychology a lot these days. I don’t, however, of it in those terms. I think of my actions in vastly different terms. People used to say the phrase that sits atop this post. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,63],"tags":[154,183],"class_list":["post-1486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-expectations","tag-communication","tag-expectations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1487,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}