How To Say "playing Mind Games"

[gouda]

helloo

does anyone know how to say "playing mind games" in thai or some equivalent...e.g screwing with your head/mind etc..

thai script would be helpful

cheers

[elcent]

"lo len", no?

[anchan42]

I think we use the word "Psycho" or "ไซโค"

อย่ามาไซโคฉันนะ Don't playing mind game with me.

or perhaps หลอน but I think this word convey the meaning of being obvious and nasty.

[NALAK]

i dont know but i wish my misus would stop doing it, day in day out. i asked about the above translations and she did not understand them but thats her proably playing mind games. she now knows it as me saying shes being a <deleted>

[kaewmala]

I think we use the word "Psycho" or "ไซโค"

อย่ามาไซโคฉันนะ Don't playing mind game with me.

or perhaps หลอน but I think this word convey the meaning of being obvious and nasty.

I find it interesting that more and more Thai slang are mangled English expressions, like this ไซโค /psy-cho/ - as in playing a mind game, e.g. อย่ามาโซโคผมนะ "Don't play a mind game with me" or เลิกไซโคผมซะทีเหอะ "Stop playing your mind game with me."

Another, very new, slang is นอย, as in "paranoid" or "annoy(ed)": ไม่ต้องมานอยเลย อย่ามานอยชั้นนะ . I seems like, that second person is perceived to be paranoid/crazy so s/he played a mind game (which makes no sense to me), or the person plays a mind game that annoys the speaker (which makes more sense - but not by much), but then I'm not into new mangled-Thingrish slang, so don't really understand this new slang.

I tried to find more authentic Thai expressions for this but couldn't really come up with an ideal equivalent.

There's an expression: ตุกติก /tuk tik/ or เล่นตุกติก /len tuk tik/ which is more like not playing straight, being cunning and up to some dirty tricks. อย่าเล่นตุกติก /yaa len tuk tik/ would be to tell a person not to do that to you. This expression has a less psychotic connotation, though.

Another one, เล่นบ้าๆ /len baa-baa/, may be closer. To say อย่ามาเล่นบ้าๆกับผมนะ /yaa maa len baa-baa kap phom na/ would be to say, don't play some crazy tricks on me.

I'm not sure about หลอน which (at least in its original meaning) has more to do with hallucination. Is this used in the original sense or a new slang sense?

One other term, ประสาทเสีย /pra-saat sia/, means to be nervous or to be driven out of your mind. So, you could say อย่ามาทำให้ผมประสาทเสียเลย "Don't make me go out of my mind" or "Don't make me nervous".

If the person doesn't understand the "Thingrish" slang 'psycho' (mostly used by urbanites, so likely that someone from upcountry may not get it), I'd choose to say อย่ามาเล่นบ้าๆ or use a hybrid อย่ามาเล่นเกมกับผม /yaa maa len game kap phom/ "Don't play a game with me".

[GarryP]

Couldn't ปั่นหัว apply to this situation?

[kaewmala]

Couldn't ปั่นหัว apply to this situation?

Yes, a very good one!

[gouda]

thanks for your contributions, i'll try these out...

[ivowatson]

thanks for your contributions, i'll try these out...

All very interesting! Please, keep us informed.

[Baa_Mango]

ive heard psycho as โรคจิต even though ( i just looked that up ) i swore my friend told me it as "โลคจิต and even wrote it with ล like that oh well that happens allll the time as we all know. Just a comment on นอย .. exactly it means paranoid and i thinks its a pretty teenage word and is used when using drugs.. like ohhh dont be so นอย i was just talking to my friend on the phone - i didnt say anything about you !!

[bina]

braa saat sia -- would that mean also along the lines of 'nervous breakdown' ? or just making someone 'nervous'. here, we hae a very specific word for being annoyed/anxious/nervous all at once; would like one in thai as well

bina

[kaewmala]

/

braa saat sia -- would that mean also along the lines of 'nervous breakdown' ? or just making someone 'nervous'. here, we hae a very specific word for being annoyed/anxious/nervous all at once; would like one in thai as well

Good question, bina. I needed to asked a couple of people on this as well. The consensus is that ประสาทเสีย /pra-saat sia/ is a more generic term, covering from being simply irritated, uneasy or somewhat neurotic to having really gone bonkers. Someone can be /pra-saat sia/ or made so by someone else (e.g. enough mind games would cause one's "neurosis to go bad" which is the literal translation of the expression).

The Thai equivalent for having a nervous breakdown is สติแตก / sà-tì tÈEk/, literally "broken mind."

[SoftWater]

/

braa saat sia -- would that mean also along the lines of 'nervous breakdown' ? or just making someone 'nervous'. here, we hae a very specific word for being annoyed/anxious/nervous all at once; would like one in thai as well

Good question, bina. I needed to asked a couple of people on this as well. The consensus is that ประสาทเสีย /pra-saat sia/ is a more generic term, covering from being simply irritated, uneasy or somewhat neurotic to having really gone bonkers. Someone can be /pra-saat sia/ or made so by someone else (e.g. enough mind games would cause one's "neurosis to go bad" which is the literal translation of the expression).

The Thai equivalent for having a nervous breakdown is สติแตก / sà-tì tÈEk/, literally "broken mind."

Kaewmala, would you accept Lexitron dictionary's attempt of ความเจ็บป่วยทางจิต for nervous breakdown? Would people actually say or write this do you think?

(actually, Lexitron's full definition/description is ช่วงเวลาที่มีความเจ็บป่วยทางจิต)

Edited March 22, 2010 by SoftWater

[kaewmala]

Kaewmala, would you accept Lexitron dictionary's attempt of ความเจ็บป่วยทางจิต for nervous breakdown? Would people actually say or write this do you think?

(actually, Lexitron's full definition/description is ช่วงเวลาที่มีความเจ็บป่วยทางจิต)

No, that's more like having a mental health problem, and it's more of a written language. สติแตก is slang. I can imagine the phrases from Lexitron being uttered at a mental health conference or by some extremely sober, scholarly person but not an average Thai in a normal conversation. Other than สติแตก one might say บ้าไปแล้ว (lit. gone mad).

A nervous breakdown is not a disease, is it, though it might lead to one. Something snapped and then one's mental health may not be quite the same. Without proper care one goes really mentally mad and incompetent. That unfortunate state is called วิกลจริต and would be clasified under mental disease.

[kaewmala]

Forgot another word: จิตวิปลาส for a serious case of a nervous breakdown. This is a more traditional term.

[bina]

could u tranliterate those terms. unfortunately, best friend has had a nervous breakdown and havingto explain to anon why we arent going to her house for holidays (she was hosptialized for a short term, but still 'shaky' and medicated so rowdy holidays are not what she wants... couldnt find the correct terms (its actually the connotations of those terms that are the problem. she's not a nut case since she is lucid and aware of her mental state and is working on 'fixing' it. she sees it as an illness and not 'baa lao' (crazy). (she's an ex doctor btw). trying to explain to issaan country thai like my husband is really difficult. its difficult in the best of circumstances where a society hears these words daily and its almost 'cool' to have mini breakdowns. (who wouldnt in this country, we are all 'praa sat sia' in the extreme here. but some words connotate closed wards and straightjackets and others a sort of 'woman's breakdown due to too much pressure/nervewracking living situations'.

words might translate word for word but it is always the cultural undercurrents that give the word its 'umph'...

bina

israel

[RickBradford]

From this morning's Daily News, Carlo Ancelotti is "เล่นสงครามประสาท" with Alex Ferguson, 'playing a battle of nerves'.

[kaewmala]

could u tranliterate those terms. unfortunately, best friend has had a nervous breakdown and havingto explain to anon why we arent going to her house for holidays (she was hosptialized for a short term, but still 'shaky' and medicated so rowdy holidays are not what she wants... couldnt find the correct terms (its actually the connotations of those terms that are the problem. she's not a nut case since she is lucid and aware of her mental state and is working on 'fixing' it. she sees it as an illness and not 'baa lao' (crazy). (she's an ex doctor btw). trying to explain to issaan country thai like my husband is really difficult. its difficult in the best of circumstances where a society hears these words daily and its almost 'cool' to have mini breakdowns. (who wouldnt in this country, we are all 'praa sat sia' in the extreme here. but some words connotate closed wards and straightjackets and others a sort of 'woman's breakdown due to too much pressure/nervewracking living situations'.

words might translate word for word but it is always the cultural undercurrents that give the word its 'umph'...

In the context you just gave, bina, I'd say to your husband: เขาเครียดมาก จนไม่สบาย /khao kriad maak jon mai sabai/ (i.e. she was highly stressed, so she became ill). Or you can say, เขาไม่สบายทางใจ /khao mai sa-bai thaang jai/ (not well mentally). You might even say เขาประสาทตึงเครียด /khao pra-saat tueng kriad/ (her nerves are tightly wound up).These are indirect way of explaining the situation.

For a more modern set of people who understand mental health, you can say, someone ป่วยทางจิต ต้องไปหาหมอ /puay thanng jit tong pai haa moh/ (mentally ill, need to see a doctor).

The slang I gave สติแตก /sa-ti taek/ can be negative, suggesting someone is out of control mentally or hysterical (which is pretty much having a nervous breakdown). You can use this term in reference to yourself or a close friend in a joking manner, but you would not use it seriously with someone who really has a nervous breakdown because it will be rude.

I'd avoid words like โรคประสาท /rok pra saat/ (neurosis) and โรคจิต /rok jit/ (mental illness) as they have negative connotation.

[Thongkorn]

Just say Doll air,

[bina]

thanx.its wierd how words carry more then just their plain meaning with them but a whole baggage of undercurrents /connotations/nuances...

will use these terms...finally can use something more then pigin hebrew to explain the situation; we have several situations: the other one might not have any terms at all: shell shock . very common here, and would like to know how i would explain that--

bina