Howard Zinn R.I.P.

1/28/10. The life of Howard Zinn, a controversial historian.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/28zinn.html?em

"Attachment Security: Born or Made?"

1/26/10. John Bowlby, an eminent psychiatrist from England, developed a wide-ranging theory of attachment. His three books "Attachment," "Separation." and "Loss," are classics, filled with useful clinical principles understood through psychoanalytic and evolutionary theories.

Professor of psychology, Jay Belsky, discusses whether attachment security is in nature or nurture.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/family-affair/200901/attachment-security-born-or-made

Monday Quotations

1/25/10.

"Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well."

--- Epictetus (55 - 135)


"Without Contraries is not progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human Existence."

--- William Blake (1757 - 1827)


"Not all knowledge in this sense is part of our intellect, nor is our intellect the whole of our knowledge. Our habits and skills, our emotional attitudes, our tools, and our institutions --- all are in this sense adaptations to past experience which have grown up by selective elimination of less suitable conduct. They are as much an indispensable foundation of successful action as is our conscious knowledge."

Friedrich Hayek (1899 - 1992)

"Haiti's Apocalypse"

1/15/10. The earthquake adds a nightmarish chapter to a tragic history.

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0115td.html

"Martha Coakley's Convictions"

1/15/10. Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the WSJ's editorial board, is the author of "No Crueler Tyrannies: Accusations, False Witness And Other Terrors of Our Times."

Here, Ms. Rabinowitz describes the role played by the U.S. Senate candidate in a notorious sex case that raises questions about her judgment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575003341640657862.html

"Writing English as a Second Language"

1/14/10. William Zinsser gives advice on writing. He is a writer, editor, teacher, and author of the classic "On Writing Well." This article is a gem.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/

"Suicide, Sex, and SUVs"

1/13/10. Robert Samuelson, columnist for Newsweek, takes some facts from "The Statistical Abstracts."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229842

Neuroscience

1/13/10. Interview with NYT writer David Brooks on neuroscience.

http://thebrowser.com/books/interviews/brooks

"The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage"

1/12/10. Conservative lawyer Theodore Olson makes the case for gay marriage.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229957/output/print

Monday Quotations

"Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind."

--- Lewis Thomas (1913 - 1993)


"The three most beautiful words in the English language are "It is benign."

--- Woody Allen (1935 - )


"Politics is the art of preventing people from becoming involved in affairs which concern them."

--- Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

"Udder Madness"

1/11/10. A weekend at the Pudnik's farm - by Woody Allen. Highfalutin' silliness.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/01/18/100118sh_shouts_allen

"Diary of a High Functioning Person with Schizophrenia"

1/7/10. A remarkable interview --- don't miss this.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=diary-of-a-high-function

"Popular Drugs May Only Help Severe Depression"

1/7/10. This article is not a surprise --- as far as it goes, which is --- not far enough. The antidepressant drugs often help people with panic attacks, chronic mild to moderate depressed mood , and the range of obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

For people with life-long mild to moderate depressed mood, antidepressant medication "puts air in their tires."

Severe depression fits the criteria of a brain disease and often responds to pharmacotherapy.

The data overwhelming suggest that psychological therapy helps some people, medication helps some people and does not help others, and the best combination for treatment of psychiatric disorders is often psychological therapy and medication.

Both psychological therapy and medications are under-used --- the stigma of getting help for problems of the mind still exists --- at a time when psychologists and psychiatrists have many effective treatments to offer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/health/views/06depress.html?em

And more on depression ---

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/opinion/09warner.html?em

And the benefits of antidepressants ---

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/12mind.html?hpw

Looking at ways to treat depression - Letters to the Editor ---

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/opinion/l12warner.html

Wednesday Quotation

1/6/10.

"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm --- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."

--- T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)

"The Science of Success"

1/5/10. "Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle...With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail---but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society's most creative, successful, and happy people."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/dobbs-orchid-gene

The Good Life: Ends and Means

1/5/10. Now I see the corn beef, coming through the rye. Professor Christopher Peterson, University of Michigan Positive Psychologist extraordinaire, on the good life.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-good-life/201001/the-good-life-ends-and-means

"The Art of Living Mindfully"

1/10/10. "Nothing is ever certain," says Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer. "We should make the most of that." Jennifer Ruark discusses the work of Professor Ellen Langer, best known for her concept of "mindfulness," --- paying attention: consciously looking for what is new and different, and questioning preconceived ideas.

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Art-of-Living-Mindfully/63292/

"My Brain on My Mind"

1/2/10. From "The American Scholar," thinking about the mysteries of thinking and self-consciousness.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/my-brain-on-my-mind/#more-5963

In Remembrance

1/1/10. Vivid personalities of the past decade.

The lesson: When you are alive, live.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/obituaries/31decade.html?hpw

"I Hereby Resolve To Make Fewer New Year's Resolutions"

1/1/10. Theodore Dalrymple on New Year's resolutions.

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/miarticle.htm?id=5793