About

Psychologists Say if You Recognize This Photo You Have Been Traumatized is a catchphrase used in a series of memes in which a pixelated or otherwise censored image of something traumatic, often ironically traumatic, is shown under a variation of the phrasal template, "Psychologists say if you recognize this image you have been X," with "X" usually being "traumatized" but sometimes replaced. The trend became popularized on Twitter in late July 2023 and spread over the following days.

Origin

On July 27th, 2023, Twitter^[1] user @blxzeddrive posted a pixelated version of a photo of Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater, writing, "psychologists say if you recognise this photo you have been traumatised," garnering over 129,700 likes in four days (shown below). This is the earliest known example of the meme.

Spread

The trend spread over the following days. On July 28th, 2023, Twitter^[2] user @ecto_fun posted a version of the trend referring to the 1981 film Possession, garnering over 13,100 likes in three days (shown below, left). On the same day, Instagram^[3] user britishmemes posted a version of the meme using an obscured photo of the four lads in jeans meme, garnering over 38,100 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right). It was originally posted by Twitter^[5] user @buckfastbadlad earlier that day, garnering around 500 likes.

On July 30th, Twitter^[4] user @NoContextBrits posted a version of the meme using a blurred photo of King Charles' sausage fingers, garnering over 9,400 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References