Thought-terminating cliché

A thought-terminating cliché is a commonly used phrase, sometimes passing as folk wisdom, used to quell cognitive dissonance, especially in cases where the person experiencing the cognitive dissonance might resolve it by reaching a thought-provoking epiphany.

The term was popularized by Robert Jay Lifton in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Lifton said, “The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis” (Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, page 429). [1]

The thought-terminating cliché is related to the opaque pigeonhole, or closed category, which also does not permit analysis.

In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the fictional constructed language Newspeak is designed to reduce language entirely to a set of thought-terminating clichés. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World society uses thought-terminating clichés in a more conventional manner, most notably in regard to the drug soma as well as modified versions of real-life platitudes, such as, "A doctor a day keeps the jim-jams away".

Examples

John tells his friend Steve, who is considering a promising but risky investment, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Steve takes his friend's advice, and rejects the investment. Alternatively:

Why? Because I said so.
That's a no-brainer.
When you get to my age… (as in “When you get to my age you'll find that's not true.”).
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
If you are not with us, you are against us.
That is just a conspiracy theory.
You don't always get what you want.
The best defense is a good offense.
A rising tide lifts all boats.

Examples

See also