The Evolution of Art

2/23/09. Some say art appreciation is in the genes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/185821/output/print

Will President Obama's Plan Help or Hurt?

2/22/09. A very smart economist says if you know whether Obama's plan will help or hurt --- then you don't know.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5779873.ece

A Reconcilation on Gay Marriage

2/22/09. Disagreements on moral issues ususally bring more heat than light rather than finding common ground.

David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch offer a thoughtful compromise regarding gay marriage. Their compromise reminds me of a comment a smart Southern writer suggested many years ago during the heat of the school busing and school prayer controversies --- he suggested, "Let's allow school prayer on buses."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22rauch.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Ann Coulter

2/21/09. I just watched a video of Joy Behar of "The View" interviewing Ann Coulter.

Coulter reminds me of a female right wing Lenny Bruce.

She is an expert at throwing well-timed cherry bombs to shake up our sleepy assumptions. No matter what your ideological bent, it is hard to watch Ann Coulter without jacking up your blood pressure, laughing, or shaking your head.

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/20/video-coulter-and-behar-try-to-be-civil-with-each-other-for-20-minutes/

The Art of the Con

2/21/09. Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptics Magazine, reports on why we are easy prey for con artists such as Bernie Madoff.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=art-of-the-con-learn-from-madoff&print=true

Monday Quotations

2/16/08.

God is, or He is not. But to which side shall we
incline? Reason can decide nothing here.
There is infinite chaos which separates
us. A game is being played at the extremity
of this infinite distance, where heads or tails
will turn up: what will you wager?

--- Blase Pascal (1623 - 1662)


If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.

--- Woody Allen (1935 - )

It could probably be shown by facts and figures
that there is no distinctly native American
criminal class except Congress.

--- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

The Evolutionary Gospel

2/16/09. The Evolutionary Gospel according to Richard Dawkins, fundamentalist atheist.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5707143.ece

Promises, Promises

2/15/09. Chicago writer Joseph Epstein says Obama's soaring expectations collide with harsh political realities.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/184774/output/print

U.S. Court Rejects Vaccine Connection to Autism

2/13/09. This is a sad story. Many parents with an autistic child have grabbed onto the belief that vaccinations cause autism. With this belief, parents have not only ignored scientific research that has never supported the autism - vaccination link, but too many parents have put their children who are not vaccinated at risk for serious illness and death.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123445313976177691.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457031065286323.html

Happy Birthday: Lincoln and Darwin

2/12/09. About Lincoln and Darwin.


http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/579932

Just Ringing in My Ear

2/10/09. Dr. Jerome Groopman reviews the history, diagnosis and treatments for that buzzing sound in the ear called tinnitus.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/09/090209fa_fact_groopman?printable=true

Darwin, Ahead of His Time, is Still Influential

2/09/09. Nicholas Wade of the NYT adds another fine article on evolution for Darwin's 200th birthday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/science/10evolution.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Monday Quotations

2/9/08.

Owing to the struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relationships to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving.

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection, in order to make its relation to man's power of selection.

I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design or indeed of design of any kind, in the details.

---Chares Darwin (1809 - 1882)


We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.

Richard Dawkins (1941 - )


The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.

G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

The Pesistence of Idealogy

2/9/09. Grand ideas still drive history.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_1_otbie-ideology.html

Unfinished Business

2/9/09. Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. His ideas continues to deepen our understanding of life.

http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=13059028

Positive Psychology: Selected Readings

2/8/09.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HaperCollins, 1990.

Diener, E., and Biswas-Diener, R. Happiness. Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008.

Fredrickson, B. L. Positivity. New York: Crown Publishers, 2009.

Lyubomirsky, S. The How of Happiness. New York: Penguin Press, 2008.

Nolen-Hoeksema, S. Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life. New York: Henry Holt Co., 2003.

Peterson, C. A Primer of Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Seligman, M.E.P. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press, 2002.

Vaillant, G.E. Aging Well, Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company, 2002.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder / Learning Disabilities: Selected Readings

2/8/09.

Barkley, Russell. Taking Charge of ADHD. The Complete, Authoritative Guide for Parents. New York: The Guilford Press, 1995.

Brown, Thomas E. (Editor). Attention-Deficit Disorders and Comorbidities in Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 2000.

Faraone, Stephen V. Straight Talk about Your Child’s Mental Health. New York: The Guilford Press, 2003.

Hallowell, Edward M., and Ratey, John J. Delivered from Distraction. Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder. New York: Random House, 2005.

Kelly, Kate, and Ramundo, Peggy. You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! Cincinnati:
Tyrell & Jerem Press, 1993.

Silver, Larry B. The Misunderstood Child. A Guide for Parents of Children With Learning Disabilities. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Weiss, Garbrielle, and Hechtman, Lily Trokenberg. Hyperactive Children Grown Up. New York: The Guilford Press, 1993 (Second Edition).

Weiss, Margaret; Hechtman, Lily Trokenberg; and Weiss, Gabrielle. ADHD in Adulthood. A Guide to Current Theory, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1999.

Wender, Paul H. ADHD. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and
Adults. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Wilens, Timothy E. Straight Talk about Psychiatric Medications for Kids. New York: The Guilford Press, 1999.

Practice Guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of ADHD:

http://www.aacap.org/galleries/PracticeParameters/JAACAP_ADHD_2007.pdf

Mood Disorders: Selected Readings

2/8/09.

Alexander, Roger E. Stress-related suicide by dentists and other health care workers. Fact or folklore? Journal of the American Dental Association. Vol. 132, June 2001.

Clark, David B. Dental Care for the Patient with Bipolar Disorder. Journal of the Canadian Dental Association. Vol. 69, No. 1, January 2003.

Freud, Sigmund. Mourning and Melancholia. In The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 14: 243 – 258. London: Hogarth Press, 1957.

Friedlander, Arthur H., Mahler, Michael E. Major depressive disorder. Psychopathology, medical management and dental implications. Journal of the American Dental Association. Vol. 132, May 2001.

Goodwin, Frederick K., and Jamison, Kay Redfield. Manic Depressive Illness. Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Horwitz, Allan V., and Wakefield, Jerome C. The Loss of Sadness. How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Jamison, Kay Redfield, An Unquiet Mind. New York: Knopf, 1995.

Jamison, Kay Redfield. Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.

Koplewicz, Harold S. More Than Moody. Recognizing and Treating Adolescent Depression. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2003.
McHugh, Paul R., Slavney, P. The Perspectives of Psychiatry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Second Edition.

Mondimore, F.M. Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Klein, Donald F., and Wender, Paul H. Understanding Depression. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Seligman, Martin E.P. Authentic Happiness. New York: The Free Press, 2002.

Simpson, Janice C. Job Hazard. Dentists Grow Richer But Feel the Pressure; Suicide Rate is High. Some Good – Dentist Traits May Foster Depression: Schools and Societies Act. Isolation and Malpractice Suits. Wall Street Journal. December 17, 1976. And, Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal. Dentists and Depression, Samuel Colish, January 1, 1977.

Storr, Anthony. The Art of Psychotherapy. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall Inc. 1990. Second Edition.

Styron, W. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

Five Best Books on Charles Darwin

2/7/09. These books about Charles Darwin are a very select group, says James A. Secord, the editor of Darwin's "Evolutionary Writings" and the director of the Darwin Correspondence Project and professor of history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123396901220759221.html#printMode

How a City Lost Its Soul

2/6/09. This is a book review about my city --- Detroit. I have vivid memories of when Detroit, a flourishing and vibrant town of jazz and sports and more, began to lose its soul during the riots of 1967. I remember going down the morning after the riots to my father's store on Livernois in Detroit because his store, like so many others, was robbed.

In her review of Luke Bergmann's book about Detroit called "Getting Ghost," Julia Vitullo-Martin notes just how far Detroit has fallen since the riots.

"Getting Ghost" refers to disappearing from the neighborhood, coming in and out of the drug trafficking trade, or simply dying. Bergmann tells us about Detroit through the eyes of two drug dealers. This is a sad tale about a city that has not yet found its soul.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123353507059837719.html

We Were Relentless

1/30/09. Jordan Levin is a remarkable, resilient young man. He never met a disability that he could not overcome. Dr. Martin Levin just published a book documenting raising his son Jordan to combat challenges that almost all the experts said could not be accomplished. The experts were wrong.

Jordan is an excellent motivational speaker.

Check out his Web site:

http://www.jordanlevin.com/motivational.htm

The DNA of Politics

1/29/09. Professor James Q. Wilson discusses how genes shape our values, our beliefs, and even our votes.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_1_dna.html

Follow the Evidence

1/29/09. Philip Kitcher, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, reviews a new book about Charles Darwin --- whose 200th birthday on February 12 will be marked by world wide celebrations.

The new book is by Jerry Coyne, a leading evolutionary geneticist - "Why Evolution is True."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123318971717526863.html

Monday Quotations

1/26/09.

He who would teach men to die would teach them to live.

--- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)


To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar
to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the
untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible,
the limited to the unbounded, the near
to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant,
the convenient to the perfect, present
laughter to utopian bliss.

--- Michael Oakeshott (1901 - 1990)


For what links us are elemental experiences -
emotions - forces that have no intrinsic language
and must be imagined as art if they are
to be contemplated at all.

--- Joyce Carol Oates (1938 - )

Getting There From Here

1/25/09. Atul Gawande, surgeon and author, offers advice to Obama about how to reform health care.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/26/090126fa_fact_gawande?printable=true

Monday Quotations

1/19/09.

Tragedy is if I get a paper cut...Comedy is if you fall in an open sewer and die.

--- Mel Brooks (1926 - )


He never made the ten-most-wanted list. It's very unfair voting. It's who you know.

--- Woody Allen (1935 - )


Room service? Send up a larger room.

--- Groucho Marx (1895 - 1977)

Dopamine Made Me Do It

1/16/09. So why did so many people fall for the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff? Some say that brain chemicals are the culprit. Sally Satel, M.D. argues against such a reductionist view.

http://www.aei.org/include/pub_print.asp?pubID=29208

'Uncle Bernie' and the Jews

1/16/09. Joseph Epstein, my favorite essay writer, waxes eloquently on how the Madoff scandal plays to an ugly stereotype. But maybe there's a silver lining for his cultural cohort.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/178928/output/print

New Thinking on How to Protect Your Heart

1/15/09. New York Times science writer Jane Brody outlines how new research plays an important role in keeping hearts healthy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13brod.html?_r=1&em

Brain Facts

1/14/09. A primer on the brain and nervous system.

http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=brainFacts&section=publications

The Art Instinct

1/13/09. This is a book review of Denis Dutton's "The Art Instinct." To read Dutton is to enter the world of a creative, courageous, and insightful explorer of the human mind. Dutton - the founder of one of the best Web sites - "Arts and Letters Daily" - takes an evolutionary perspective in his analysis of the art instinct.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=20751503

Interview with Denis Dutton:

http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2009/01/painting_and_the_pleistocene_1.php

My Genome, My Self

1/12/09. Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, tells us what he has learned about his DNA. Professor Pinker discusses the field of behavioral genetics, and what we know about what personality predispositions, intellectual abilities, and diseases are lodged in our "hard drive," and what are acquired in our "software."

Know thyself takes on a whole new meaning.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/magazine/11Genome-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

MONDAY QUOTATIONS

1/12/09.

I firmly disbelieve, myself, that our human experience is the highest form of experience extant in the universe. I believe rather that we stand in much the same relation to the whole of the universe as our canine and feline pets do to the whole of human life. They inhabit our drawing-rooms and libraries. They take part in scenes of whose significance they have no inkling. They are merely tangent to curves of history the beginnings and ends and forms of which pass wholly beyond their ken. So we are tangent to the wider life of things.

William James (1842 - 1910)


It is difficult to predict, especially the future.

Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962)


I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals Himself
In the orderly harmony of what exists, not in
a God who concerns himself with fates and
actions of human beings.

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Intelligible or Intelligent Design?

1/10/09. Solving the world's problems may take both religious and scientific attitudes, argues Frederick Grinnell.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=vjbjz38zbm2ng3j9cl2hxydbfj1w2yfy

Crime and Economy Don't Tell Whole Story

1/10/09. James Q. Wilson, one of the wisest political scientist around, writes about how much we do not know about crime and the economy.

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.29161,filter.all/pub_detail.asp

Deepak Chopra et al.: 'Alternative' Medicine is Mainstream

1/9/00. Deepak Chopra, Dean Ornish, Rustum Roy, and Andrew Weil tells us that "The evidence is mounting that diet and lifestyle are the best cures for our worst afflictions." Is this a case of the barbers telling us we need a haircut or are these docs on to something?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146318996466585.html

Why We Are Still Happy

1/6/09. Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky reflects on why we are still happy. As the author of "The How of Happiness," she should know.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/opinion/27lyubomirsky.html?em=&pagewanted=print

REVOLUTION IN MIND. The Creation of Psychoanalysis.

1/6/09. This is a review of George Makari's book "Revolution in Mind." Makari is the director of Cornell University's Institute for the History of Psychiatry.

Makari takes us on a stroll down all the thorny branches of Freud's family tree. Makari introduces us to many neglected figures of Freud's era such as Theodule Ribot, who added to the powerful stream of Freud's ideas. Makarai states that psychoanalysis created "the richest systematic description of inner experience that the Western world had produced." It addressed, "sex, love and death; parenting and family; cruelty, fear, jealousy, envy and hate; identity, conscience and character; desire and mourning" --- all the themes of Woody Allen's movies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Prochnik-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

"Spiritual Evolution. A Scientific Defense of Faith"

1/5/09. Harvard psychiatrist George Vaillant recently published a book defending man's inherent spirituality (with the above captioned title). With a surge of recent books declaring that religion is a danger, it is refreshing to read a pioneer in the study of adult development drawing on research from psychology and neuroscience to restore our belief in faith as an essential human striving.

The link below is to an article Vaillant wrote in 2006 that highlights some of the themes developed in this new book.

http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/ArticleDetail/tabid/68/id/9597/Default.aspx

What Will Change Everything?

1/2/09. Selected thinkers mull over the question of what will be the next game changing discovery in science.

http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_print.html

The "Big Five" Personality Traits

12/28/08. In the 1970s research teams lead by Paul Costa and Robert R. McCrae of NIH, and Warren Norman and Lewis Goldberg, at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the University of Oregon, respectively, discovered that most human personality traits can be described using the following five dimensions:

• Extroversion
• Openness
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Neuroticism

Where are you on the Big Five scale? Take this free personality test and find out.

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Radio Web Site: All the Music Fit to Hear

12/28/08. Terrific radio site.

http://www.theradio.com/

Risky Business

12/22/08. Women make passes at men who...skydive, or climb mountains, or ride motorcyles, or...

http://www.livescience.com/culture/081219-sex-risks.html

Deceit R' Us

12/22/08. Telling lies is more human --- and nonhuman, than otherwise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/science/23angi.html?_r=1

Monday Quotations

12/22/08.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived lives of the parents.

--- Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)



Ask your child what he wants for dinner only if he is buying.

-- Fran Lebowitz (1950 - )



Where the Wild Things Are.

--- Maurice Sendak (1928 - )

What Kind of Father Am I?

12/21/08. An octogenarian reflects on fatherhood.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/sp08/father-mcconkey.html

Evolution of the Mind

12/19/08. 4 Fallacies of Psychology.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=four-fallacies

Why Music?

12/19/08. What is the evolutionary purpose of music? Biologists keeping trying to answer this question. Agreement --- there is not.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=12795510

Teasing Apart the Links between Depression and Heart Disease

12/18/08. The links between depression and heart disease...what are some things we know.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/health/research/16depr.html?_r=1&ref=science

Psychiatrists Revising the Book of Human Troubles

12/18/08. The 5th Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is coming to your bookstores - in 36 months - ...with all the controversies between the covers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/health/18psych.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

When Altruism Isn't Enough

12/17/08. There are many people waiting for organ transplants --- and many of those people will die waiting because of the shortage of organs.

The psychiatrist Sally Satel, M.D. --- a recipient herself of a kidney transplant ---brings together experts to discuss the idea of compensating people for donating their organs to address this tragic shortage.

http://www.aei.org/books/bookID.970/book_detail.asp

Monday Quotations

12/15/08.

The ego's relation to the id might be compared with that of a rider to his horse. The horse supplies the locomotive energy, while the rider has the privilege of deciding on the goal and of guiding the powerful animal's movement. But only too often there arises between the ego and the id the not precisely ideal situation of the rider being obliged to guide the horse along the path by which it itself wants to go.

--- Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)



The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.

--- Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)



To doubt everything or to believe everything
are two equally convenient solutions; both
dispense with the necessity of reflection.

--- Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912)

Not with a Bang But a Whimper

12/13/08. This is a review of Theodore Dalrymple's collection of essays on the The Politics and Culture of Decline. The essays are filled with unconventional wisdom, honest observations about human folly, and striking stories written by a former prison psychiatrist.

http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/books/story.html?id=1047654

Most Likely to Succeed

12/9/08. Malcolm Gladwell answers the question: "How do we hire when we can't tell who's right for the job?"

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/15/081215fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Monday Quotations

12/8/08.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

--- Aristotle (384 B.C. - 322 B.C.)


Happiness is equilibrium. Shift your weight. Equilibrium is pragmatic. You have to get everything in proportion. You compensate, rebalance yourself so that you maintain your angle to your world. When the world shifts, you shift.

--- Tom Stoppard (1937 - )


A child of five would understand this. Send somebody to fetch a child of five.

--- Groucho Marx (1895 - 1977)

On the Journey to Oblivion

12/8/08. Joseph Epstein reviews "Nothing To Be Frightened Of," by Julian Barnes.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=15891&R=13D38610E

Hysteria in Four Acts

12/7/08. Psychiatrist Paul McHugh brings to life the history, understanding and psychiatric misadventures associated with the concept of hysteria.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/hysteria-in-four-acts-13663

Robert Zajonc dies

12/7/08. Robert Zajonc was a psychologist who made many important contributions to psychology --- linking workings of the mind to social behavior.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/education/07zajonc.html?ref=obituaries&pagewanted=all

No Country for Young Children

12/6/08. Tales of child maltreatment from Britain.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon1204td.html

Balls and Brains

12/5/08. Intelligent males have healthier sperm.

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12719355

Is Happiness Contagious?

12/5/08. Yes.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-happy5-2008dec05,0,5056607.story

Monday Quotations

12/1/08.

A man brings some very fine material to a tailor and asks him to make a pair of pants. When he comes back a week later, the pants are not ready. Two weeks later, they still are not ready. Finally, after six weeks, the pants are ready. The man tries them on. They fit perfectly. Nonetheless, when it comes time to pay, he can't resist a jibe at the tailor.
"You know," he says, "it took God only six days to make the world. And it took you six weeks to make just one pair of pants."
"Ah," the tailor says. "But look at this pair of pants, and look at the world!"

---- cited in "Jewish Humour," by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.


My wife was an immature woman...I would be home in the bathroom, taking a bath, and my wife would walk in whenever she felt like it and sink my boats.

--- Woody Allen (1935 - )


To the man-in-the-street, who, I'm sorry to say,
Is a keen observer of life,
The word 'Intellectual" suggests straight away
A man who's untrue to his wife.

--- W. H. Auden (1907 - 1973)

All You Need is Help

11/27/08. Author Malcolm Gladwell says, in his new book "Outliers: The Story of Success," geniuses are both born and made. Gladwell writes, "People don't rise from nothing ... hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies...allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot."

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc1126lv.html

Gray Skies are Going to Clear Up

11/27/08. Put on a happy face ---- report about the first conference on happiness.

Gratitude is a key component of happiness.

What are you grateful for?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/us/27happy.html

Books - 2008

11/26/08. The New York Times list of the 100 notable books of 2008.

Do you recommended any of these books? and why?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

The Child Trap

11/25/08. Author Joan Acocella illuminates the rise of overparenting.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/11/17/081117crbo_books_acocella

Well, A New Face For ADHD

11/25/08. Now is the best time in human history to get effective help for psychiatric disorders, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

With the proper treatment, children growing up with ADHD can reach high levels of success and joy in their families, at work, and with friends and colleagues. They can even win gold metals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/health/25well.html?_r=1

Monday Quotations

11/24/08

There are four chief obstacles to grasping truth, which hinder every man, however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to knowledge; namely, submission to faulty and unworthy authority, influence of custom, popular prejudice, and concealment of our ignorance accompanied by the ostentatious display of our knowledge.

--- Roger Bacon (1214 - 1294)


To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

--- William Blake (1757 - 1827)


Those who have become eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry, and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia.

--- Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

Curing Diversity

11/24/08. We are learning about individual differences in diseases and how we must tailor our treatments to these differences.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_4_curing_diversity.html

Destructive Delusions

11/20/08. Theodore Dalrymple reviews Paul McHugh's book: "Try to Remember. Psychiatry's Clash Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind."

This is the story of how some psychiatrists and psychologists lost their way --- treating "victims" who were seized by the return of repressed memories of sexual abuse in childhood, and leveled false charges against family members, wrecking their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

I have met with fathers in psychotherapy who were psychologically devastated after being falsely accused of child sexual abuse by their daughters.

Of course, child sexual abuse occurs. The sexually abused females who I have worked with in psychotherapy never forgot the soul murdering effects of their nightmares of sexual abuse.

McHugh carefully follows these psychiatric misdirections. He describes the limits and follies of our psychiatric diagnostic system, defines and discusses hysteria, and traces the seminal work of psychiatrist Jerome Frank on the components of effective psychotherapy. Frank wrote a classic book on psychotherapy called "Persuasion and Healing."

McHugh is a clear, concise thinker with years of clinical experience and teaching, and with a razor sharp mind laced with honest reflections on treating the mentally ill and addressing the follies and misadventures of psychology and psychiatry.

Have you known someone who was falsely accused of sexual abuse based on recovered memories discovered during psychotherapy?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122714489697843157.html

More on McHugh from the Jerusalem Post:

http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910048733&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Magic and the Brain: How Magicians "Trick" the Mind

11/18/08. In this article from Scientific American, the authors discuss how knowledge of magic tricks informs us about how the brain works.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=magic-and-the-brain&print=true

Monday Quotations

11/17/08.

Capitalism is in trouble because of its belief that everyone can take care of himself. It does not know how to help those who cannot help themselves. On the other hand, socialism is in trouble because it believes that no one can take care of himself.

--- Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)


It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.

--- Adam Smith (1723 - 1790)


We are all strong enough to bear the misfortunes of others.

--- Francois, Duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680)

Love in the Time of Darwinism

11/17/08. Author Kay S. Hymowitz applies Darwin's theory to male - female relationships. We are all animals: men are tough, cool, and promiscuous; women are manipulative, calculating, and driven by self-interest.

True?

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_4_darwinist_dating.html

Its All in Your Head

11/14/08. Psychiatrist Sally Satel tells us that many doctors routinely prescribe placebos to their patients. To give or not to give placebos? --- Is that a fair question?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122662161651026511.html

Slouching Toward Fanaticism

11/14/08. Physician Theodore Dalrymple reviews "Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure."

False theories of causation abound in autism and other disorders of the mind - not to mention a myriad of murky theories associated with the etiology of some physical ailments. These false theories bring on a host of wacky, dangerous, and costly treatments in the hope of a cure.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc1114td.html

A Novel Theory of Mental Disorders

11/10/08. Bernard Crespi, a biologist, and Christopher Badcock, a sociologist, have proposed an intriguing theory about how the contributions of parents' genetics may tilt their child's psychiatric disorder in one direction or another. A push, they say, to the father's genetics may predispose child disorders along the autistic spectrum. Genes from the mother may push the child's psychiatric disorder along the psychotic spectrum.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/health/research/11brain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Monday Quotations

11/10/08.

Life is short,
The art long,
The occasion instant,
Experiment perilous,
Decision difficult.

--- Hippocrates (460 BC - 370 BC)


Man, an animal that makes bargains.

--- Adam Smith (1723 - 1790)


Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

--- Karl Popper (1902 - 1994)

The Search for the Roots of Psychopathy

11/10/08. Many of us have come in contact with psychopaths: through business deals, through social contacts, through marriage, and by way of reading true crime books by such masters as Ann Rule.

In this article, John Seabrook traces the history of psychopathy and features the clinical observations and research of psychologists such as Robert Hare, who have devoted their lives to the study of these often dangerous and evil souls.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook

Michael Crichton R.I.P.

11/6/08. Author Michael Crichton dies at age 66 years. A Harvard trained medical doctor, Crichton wrote thoughtful and entertaining books, often turned into movies such as Jurassic Park and Andromeda Strain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/books/06crichton.html?pagewanted=all

Crichton's wisdom:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122611061820610563.html

Uses of Adversity

11/5/08. Writer Malcolm Gladwell asks if underprivileged outsiders have an advantage in climbing the ladder of success.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

Monday Quotations

11/3/08.

...hope takes work. No matter how negative the situation, you seek the positive elements and build on them...Hope is especially important when there is nothing you can do...In American culture, there is a powerful equation that says to lose control is to lose everything. But the most serious problems --- a terrible accident, a major disease --- are those in which we are objectively helpless. Then the best way to cope is to find out how to live with it. It's fine to keep fighting when you can change the situation. But when you can't change the facts, accept them. That's the key to health --- and to wisdom

--- Slomo Breznitz (1936 - )


I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.

--- Sir Peter Medawar (1915 - 1987)


Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.

--- Charlie Parker (1920 - 1955)

Studs Terkel, Chronicler of the American Everyman, Is Dead at 96

10/31/08. Studs Terkel was a gentle, curious man with a twinkle in both eyes --- who loved to find out about the lives of ordinary people. Just a few years ago, I talked with Studs when I shared an elevator with him -- two days in a row - when he gave a talk at an American Psychological Association meeting. He will be missed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/books/01terkel.html?pagewanted=all

Michigan Psychological Association

10/31/08. The new Michigan Psychological Association Web site.

http://www.michiganpsychologicalassociation.org/

Scientists Prove It Really Is A Thin Line Between Love and Hate

10/30/08. There they go again --- scientists make discoveries about the biological basis of love and hate.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-prove-it-really-is-a-thin-line-between-love-and-hate-976901.html

A Psychologist Helps Repackage Democrats' Message

10/30/08. Drew Weston, a psychology professor at Emory University, and a University of Michigan graduate, put together the "Message Handbook for Progressives From Left to Center." Democratic consultants say it is the first systematic, data-driven effort to mold the language of the left to fit the sensibilities of the center.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/us/politics/30message.html?_r=1&oref=login&ref=politics&pagewanted=print

Legacy of Childhood Exposure to Divorce: Marital Commitment and Confidence

10/29/08. If your parents get divorced, are you more likely to experience divorce? Jay Belsky, Professor of Psychology, discusses some new research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce.

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/a-family-affair/200810/legacy-childhood-exposure-divorce-marital-commitment-confidence

The Changing Landscape of Infidelity

10/28/08. Infidelity is up among surveys of married couples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/health/28well.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

A Boy's Life

10/27/08. Ever since he could talk, Brandon, now age 8 years, insisted that he was meant to be a girl. His parents decided to let him grow up to be a girl. This article discusses the ongoing scientific debate about the nature of gender.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200811/transgender-children

Tony Hillerman. R.I.P.

10/27/08. Novelist Tony Hillerman dies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/books/28hillerman.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

Careful What You Wish For

10/26/08. Theodore Dalrymple reviews two books that portray the allure --- and limitations --- of liberation.

Dalrymple begins his review:

The idea that mankind might find life beautifully easy if only the right laws could be promulgated and the right social attitudes inculcated is a beguiling one. It suggests that dissatisfaction and frustration arise from error and malice, rather than from the inescapable and permanent separation between man's desires and what the world can offer him.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc1024td.html

"Try to Remember. Psychiatry's Clash Over Meaning, Memory and Mind"

10/23/08. Paul McHugh's new book with the above captioned title is going to be published in November. Below is a link to excerpts from this book.

Dr. McHugh, former Chair of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has had a front seat to witness the wild misdirections of psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health clinicians. These misdirections began in the 1980s, with a mass tide of false allegations of child abuse cases. These cases were focused on child care workers in day care centers, but these false accusations that sometimes resulted in long prison sentences for innocent people spread with a fever pitch to other vulnerable groups --- parents locked in custody battles, and adults in therapy recalling "forgotten" sexual abuse. These cases were given much media attention.

We have witnessed patients who come to psychologists and psychiatrists with depression or difficulty with relationships. Some of these patients "remember" during psychological therapy forgotten sexual mistreatment in childhood --- and often get the diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), among other labels. Families are torn apart when a child - who is now an adult - falsely accuses her father of sexually abusing her many years ago.

Just as Satan appeared in Salem, Mass. three hundred years ago, in our time a vast increase in the diagnosis of MPD is used to validate the huge numbers of adults who claim to have been sexually victimized during their childhoods.

Of course some adults have experienced horrific sexual abuse in childhood --- with resulting behavioral abnormalities stemming from such cruelty.

In my experience patients who have been victims of sexual abuse by a parent, for example, almost always have trouble forgetting the horror of their abuse. They do not have trouble remembering what their parent did. That adults repress these events - or block them out of their minds --- is a dangerous myth.

In his new book, Dr. McHugh sheds light on these psychiatric misadventures and aims to inform us about the nature of competent psychological treatment.

http://www.dana.org/news/danapressbooks/detail.aspx?id=12986

Reaching an Autistic Teenager

10/21/08. How much we do not know about the etiology and treatment of autism --- a mysterious, devastating disorder. There are no shortages of theories to explain autism, just a shortage of facts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/magazine/19Autism-t.html?_r=1&em=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Freedom's Curse

10/21/08. Steven Pinker, Harvard Professor of Psychology, discusses swearing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/swear-words

Happiness

10/14/08. Experts try to unlock the mysteries of happiness.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-happinessoct05,0,4911857.story

Late Bloomers. Why Do We Equate Genius with Prococity?

10/13/08. Malcolm Gladwell explains some myths about creativity and genius.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell?printable=true

Monday Quotations

10/13/08.

Our minds are lazier than our bodies.

--- La Rochefoucauld (1747 - 1827)


What kind of system isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of system.

--- Milton Friedman (1912 - 2006)


A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.

--- Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

When Monkeys Make-Up --- Chimps are from Mars, bonobos are from Venus

10/9/08. An interview with biologist Robert Sapolsky on forgiveness in primates.

http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=121

False Apology Syndrome - I'm sorry for your sins

10/8/08. Psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple laments the fashion of public apologies for distant events and calls this pattern of political breast-beating the False Apology Syndrome:

"The habit of public apology for things in which one bears no personal responsibility changes the whole concept of a virtuous person, from one who exercises the discipline of virtue to one who expresses correct sentiment. The most virtuous person of all is he who expresses it loudest and to most people. This a debasement of morality, not a refinement of it. The end result is likely to be self-satisfaction and ruthlessness accompanied by unctuous moralizing, rather than a determination to behave well."

http://www.incharacter.org/article.php?article=119

Monday Quotations

10/6/08.

To teach how to live with uncertainty, and yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy in our age can still do for those who study it.

--- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)


Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at age eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

--- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)


The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is "ambiguity": the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces - both individual and social.

-- Paul Tillich (1886 - 1965)

Searching for Clarity: A Primer on Medical Studies

9/30/08. Science writer Gina Kolata describes the controversies and ambiguities of interpreting the results of medical studies. What we don't know may hurt us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/health/30stud.html?em=&pagewanted=all