chatoyer
New member
- Joined
- May 1, 2007
- Messages
- 122
- MBTI Type
- eNfP
- Enneagram
- 7w6
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/sp
Definition: Interpersonal or social advantages (e.g., assistance, attention, sympathy) gained indirectly from organic illness.
Secondary gain is a psychological term that means that a person has a hidden reason for holding on to an undesirable condition or behavior. More often than not this issue is unconscious and is most often uncovered during therapy or can surface during certain awareness exercises. With Secondary Gain, people are motivated to continue with their negative behavior because there is some kind of secondary payoff or benefit generated from that behavior.
Another example:
This particular assignment asked her to write out 25 reasons “Why I want to be fat!” After completing the assignment, this woman sent me a message. Her message ended with: “After I had written 25 reasons why I want to be fat I realized I have an ongoing serious issue that kept coming up again and again. I want to be fat because I feel safe being fat.” This is called "Secondary Gain."
Do you think this term is overused in psychotherapy circles? Is it legitimate? Is it another psycho-babble term with too broad a meaning? What do you think?
Secondary gain is a psychological term that means that a person has a hidden reason for holding on to an undesirable condition or behavior. More often than not this issue is unconscious and is most often uncovered during therapy or can surface during certain awareness exercises. With Secondary Gain, people are motivated to continue with their negative behavior because there is some kind of secondary payoff or benefit generated from that behavior.
Another example:
This particular assignment asked her to write out 25 reasons “Why I want to be fat!” After completing the assignment, this woman sent me a message. Her message ended with: “After I had written 25 reasons why I want to be fat I realized I have an ongoing serious issue that kept coming up again and again. I want to be fat because I feel safe being fat.” This is called "Secondary Gain."
Do you think this term is overused in psychotherapy circles? Is it legitimate? Is it another psycho-babble term with too broad a meaning? What do you think?
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