My mother died on November 28, 2012, at 9AM. We were all there with her: myself and my husband who she adored, my sister, along with her two beloved caregivers who had been caring for her for almost five years and who she loved dearly. …
The press is almost as full of attacks on psychology, psychologists, and psychotherapists as it is on medications. Both are right to some extent and both are wrong. Some of the more virulent assaults (on each) are just a part of a turf dispute, or…
Last weekend I had dinner with a friend who was horribly worried about his 65-year-old mother. She had recently been unusually self-destructive. She began a “live-in” affair with a younger man with a history of serious psychiatric problems (diagnosed bipolar disorder), who had no visible means of support…
I usually post here about psychological research, my own or others. Today I’m writing mainly as a clinician for two decades and a partner in a 32-year marriage. I just read a Scientific American Mind article about how people in long-standing relationships can literally “smell” one another’s emotions and I…
I’m in Telluride Colorado, where I attended stellar scientific meetings, held by The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford U., while the nation has been watching the massacre in Aurora, Colorado and its aftermath. The take home message of the meetings is that…
I’m about to take off for a meeting organized by the Stanford University-based CCare, The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, http://ccare.stanford.edu/ in Telluride Colorado. We’re presenting results from our current research on contemplative practices (the more heady expression for meditation) and various psychological variables, such as depression, anxiety, empathy-based guilt and…
In a recent dissertation, Kirsten Acker found that we’re willing to forgive those who harm us when they feel guilt and regret. Acker began with a simple mind experiment: “Think of a time when someone hurt you badly, but seemed oblivious or even comfortable about…
A few days ago a Scientific American blog post directed our attention to yet more information about the kind of debilitating brain trauma /brain damage that a single blast from a bomb can inflict upon our soldiers in active duty. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soldier-blast-chronic-t… It links this condition to the brain damage that occurs to…
In a recent Scientific American Mind article, Scott Lilienfeld provided a rundown on the currently controversial diagnosis, “post traumatic stressdisorder. “ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=when-coping-fails&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_HLTH_20120508 Source: Lilienfeld reviews the history of the PTSD diagnosis, notes that it is now used in the absence of trauma, and suggests that when people demonstrate the characteristic symptoms of…
An important difference between dogs and wolves in how they relate to humans has been demonstrated to be the result of genetics rather than life experience. Jason Goldman, in “The Thoughtful Animal,” a Scientific American Blog (link below) reviews an experiment designed to determine if the close social bond between…