mental acrobatics
Elaborate cognitive contortions
Mental acrobatics refers to elaborate or convoluted reasoning, often used to justify a questionable position or reconcile contradictory ideas.
The term suggests impressive but potentially dubious intellectual maneuvering—flexibility deployed in service of reaching a predetermined conclusion rather than finding truth: The mental acrobatics required to defend that policy were exhausting to watch.
- brainstormingGenerating many ideas freely
- reasoningDrawing logical conclusions
- ideationForming mental concepts
- quick-wittednessMental speed and cleverness
- critical thinkingObjective evaluation of information
deduction · lateral thinking · originality · abstraction · metacognition · adaptability · improvisation · divergent thinking · wordplay · sophistry · cognitive flexibility · analysis · heuristics · imagination · thought experiments · troubleshooting · decision-making · synthesis
mental acrobaticsintellectual honesty
Commitment to truth over ego
straight shooting · candor · plain truth · forthrightness · facing facts
mental, mentally, mentality, acrobat, acrobatic, acrobatics, acrobatically