Don't!The secret of self-control.

5/12/09. Science writer Jonah Lehrer reviews the psychology of self-control.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all

Monday Quotations

5/11/09.

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

--- Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)


"The poem must resist the intelligence, / Almost successfully.

--- Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)

Science, Spirituality, and Some Mismatched Socks

5/09/09. Quantum physics is turning up evidence that the world is not only strange, but stranger than we can imagine.

Two particles, for example, seem to communicate with each other instantly, even when they're billions of miles apart. These discoveries are used to improve data encryption, and push philosophers to sit up and take notice of signs of unknown forces perhaps akin to the spiritual dimension.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147752556985009.html

Seven Pleasures

5/7/09. This is a review of Willard Speigelman's delightful book on ordinary happiness.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124105279357871239.html

Why is the Phallus Shaped The Way It Is?

5/6/09. An evolutionary psychologist explains.

http://www.sciam.com/subscribe/index.cfm?lsource=friendmail

Creativity and Mental Illness

5/6/09. Is there a link between creativity and mental illness?

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/features/creative-minds-the-links-between-mental-illness-and-creativity-1678929.html

Monday Quotations

5/4/09.

"Two things people throughout history have had in common are hatred and humor. I am proud that, like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred."

--- Richard Pryor (1940 - 2005)

"Humour is by its nature, more truthful than factual."

--- P.J. O'Rourke (1947 - )


"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them."

--- George Orwell (1903 - 1950)

Genius - The Modern View

5/2/09. When asked how he became such a productive professional, a famous psychologist replied, "80/20 --- I put in 80 hours a week for 20 years."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/opinion/01brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Between Experience and Reflection

4/27/09. Theodore Dalrymple reviews "The Only Superpower: Reflections on Strength, Weakness, and Anti-Americanism" by Paul Hollander.

http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=4457

Monday Quotations

4/27/09.

"Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?"

"The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That - with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word success - is our national disease."

"First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it."

William James (1842 - 1910)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

4/26/09. Some experts say the concept of PTSD is itself disordered.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=post-traumatic-stress-trap

Inside the baby mind

4/26/09. A blooming, buzzing, confusion --- it's not.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/04/26/inside_the_baby_mind?mode=PF

Enlightenment Therapy

4/25/09. After fourth marriage ends, Zen master meets psychoanalyst.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/magazine/26zen-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print

Beth Clark Award

4/25/09. Last night in Lansing, MI at our annual Michigan Psychological Association Spring Conference, I, along with two of my colleagues, received the Beth Clark Service Award.

The late Dr. Beth Clark was a respected leader of MPA and this award was given by her husband, Dr. Charles Clark to an MPA member "who has demonstrated volunteerism, initiative, perseverance, integrity, selflessness and good will" in service to MPA.

I had the privilege of nominating Dr. Beth Clark for the MPA Distinguished Psychologist Award in 2000. Last night, Dr. Josephine Johnson received the MPA Distinguished Psychologist Award.

It feels good to be recognized by your peers.

Just My Confabulations

4/25/09. This article is about Choice-Blindness -- or we often don't know what we want.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227046.400-choice-blindness-you-dont-know-what-you-want.html?full=true&print=true

Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena

4/21/09. http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/

The Marriage of Reason and Nightmare

4/21/09. Novelist J.G. Ballard exposes the fragility of the affluent society.

http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=2460

To Fight Stigmas, Start With Treatment

4/21/09. Now is the best time in human history to seek treatment for psychiatric disorders. Why? Because treatments work.

Yet, there is still much stigma surrounding the mentally ill.

Psychiatrist Sally Satel says that antistigma campaigns are well-meaning but not enough to change people's attitudes.

What's needed, she says, are psychiatric treatments that work which reinforces encouraging people to seek those treatments --- "nothing destigmatizes likes success."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/21mind.html?_r=1&ref=science&pagewanted=print

Please, Pay Attention

4/20/09. Why it is so hard to stay focused, and what to do about it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124018463826033223.html#printMode

Joseph Epstein has a Cold

4/15/09. So what's a writer to do while his body mends?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=16367&R=1612F2BDB

The News of God's Death has been Greatly Exaggerated

4/15/09. The "Economist" magazine writers John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldbridge have written "God's Back: The Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World."

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/april-2009/the-news-of-god2019s-death-has-been-greatly-exaggerated

Is Government Health Insurance Cheap?

4/14/09. There is a false comparison between the costs of public and private medical plans.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123966918025015509.html#printMode

To Have, to Hold, For a While

4/13/09. Amid divorce, remarriage, and co-habitation, children do not do well. This is a review of Andrew J. Cherlin's book "The Marriage-Go-Round."

Over 35 years of practice, I have witnessed many changes in families.

Above all, divorce is significantly more common, and so to is remarriage. Even though divorce affects many more youngsters now, the psychological effects of divorce are no less painful for children, parents, and other family members.

I have sometimes said to families - in an ironic tone - that I am starting a group for children whose parents have stayed together - to help them cope.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958524728412435.html

Hellhole

4/13/09. Atul Gawande asks, "Should long-term solitary confinement for prisoners be considered torture?"

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

Mind-Changing Books

4/12/09. Economist Thomas Sowell discusses some of the books that deeply influenced him.

Sowell's book "Conflict of Visions" is a mind-changing book, clarifying the assumptions underlying political ideologies.

Sowell observes that experiences changed his mind more than books.

When asked to give a list of books for a psychologist to read, one of my favorite professors, Fritz Redl, advised, "Read people, not only books."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/mindchanging_books.html

Do Parents Matter?

4/10/09. Interview with psychologist Judith Rich Harris.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=parents-peers-children&print=true

Why "Quality' Care is Dangerous

4/9/09. The perverse consequences of 'quality' medical care.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123914878625199185.html#printMode

The Science of When to Get Married

4/7/09. Hannah Seligson asks "How do we pick the moment at which we finally decide to settle down?" Do neuroscientists have something to say about this urge to merge? See what you think.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-07/the-science-of-when-to-get-married/

"The End of Philosophy"

4/7/09. David Brooks reviews some recent findings about the evolution of morality. Reason is not the master in the moral house --- emotions appear to come first.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/opinion/07Brooks.html?_r=1&em

Monday Quotations

4/6/09.

"It's deja vu all over again."

"A nickel isn't worth a dime anymore."

"You can observe a lot by watchin'."

--- Yogi Berra (1925 - )

Benny Golson's Adventure

4/2/09. Jazz critic Nat Henthoff writes about Benny Golson, an 80 year old jazz saxophone player. I talked with a well respected jazz sax player from Detroit the other day. Here is what he said about Benny Golson:

"This guy's the real deal. I play his tunes all the time, as do all serious musicians that I know. Every recording he's made is great."

Jazz has been defined as "the sound of surprise." Benny has spent his life creating effective surprises, traveling on a life-long adventure translating his life experiences and heart-felt soul into jazz.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123853694067875329.html?mod=article-outset-box

The Frontal Cortex

4/1/09. Jonah Lerher's thoughtful, provocative Web site.

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/

DSM-IV-TR

4.1.09. The American Psychiatric Association diagnostic system...and more.

http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/dsm4TRclassification.htm

Monday Quotations

3/30/09.

How can the combination of fragments of knowledge existing in different minds bring about results which, if they were to be brought about deliberately, would require a knowledge on the part of the directing mind which no single person can possess? To show that in this sense the spontaneous actions of individuals will, under conditions which we can define, bring about a distribution of resources which can be understood as if it were made according to a single plan, although nobody has planned it, seems to me indeed an answer to the problem which has sometimes been metaphorically described as that of the 'social mind.'

--- F. A. Hayek (1899 - 1992)


I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the judicial safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.

--- F. A. Hayek


The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.

--- Arthur Koestler (1905 - 1983)

Nature v Nurture. Not How Much but How.

3/30/09. Nature works through nurture and nurture works through nature.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5986239.ece

Tails of Manhattan

3/29/09. "Two weeks ago, Abe Moscowitz dropped dead of a heart attack and was reincarnated as a lobster." --- and so Woody Allen's latest story begins.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2009/03/30/090330sh_shouts_allen?printable=true

Happiness of the People

3/24/09. Charles Murray, social policy analyst and big ideas thinker, asks, "Do people flourish more in the United States or Europe?"

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/march-2009/the-europe-syndrome-and-the-challenge-to-american-exceptionalism

Monday Quotations

3/23/09.

"The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason."

--- G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)


"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."

--- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)


"They (mirror neurons) allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct stimulation; by feeling, not by thinking.

--- Giacomo Rizzolatti (1937 - )

The Biology of Imagination

3/22/09. Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen on why the capacity for imagination owes more to biology than culture.

http://www.entelechyjournal.com/simonbaroncohen.htm

Rethinking Drinking: Alcohol and Your Health

3/10/09. This is a new government Web site called "Rethinking Drinking" that aims to help people recognize problem drinking patterns earlier and catch themselves before they fall.

http://www.rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/

Two Crooks for the Road

3/9/09. Book review of the untold story of Bonnie and Clyde.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123664301193877793.html#printMode

Monday Quotations

3/9/09.
The struggle of man against power is the
struggle of memory against forgetting.

--- Milan Kundera (1929 - )


There are one hundred and ninety-three living
species of monkeys and apes. One hundred
and ninety-two of them are covered with hair.
The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo
sapiens.

--- Desmond Morris (1928 - )


Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

--- Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)

Past Their Prime (Rate)

3/9/09. Sovietologists did not predict the fall of the Soviet Union, and economists were asleep at the wheel when the economy crashed. So much for experts.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/188143/output/print

Favorite Five Composers

3/5/09. Denis Dutton, professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and editor of the popular Web site Arts and Letters Daily, discusses his five favorite composers.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/10/denis-dutton-composers-opinions-high-five_0210_denis_dutton_slide.html

From Attitude to Gratitude

3/4/09. Wall Street Journal writer Jeff Zaslow discusses why the attitude of gratitude --- not complaining, fits the tough times we live in.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123612215614023427.html

Mysteries of Science

3/3/09. 13 Unsolved scientific puzzles.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/

Monday Quotations

3/2/09.

You can persuade a man to believe almost anything
provided he is clever enough, but it is much more
difficult to persuade someone less clever.

--- Tom Stoppard (1937 - )


Festina lente.
Make haste slowly.

--- Latin proverb


Children sweeten labors, but they make misfortunes
more bitter. They increase the cares of life, but they
mitigate the remembrance of death.

--- Francis Bacon (1909 - 1992)

Misunderstanding Darwin

2/28/09. A Skeptic's Take on the Misunderstanding of Darwin.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=darwin-misunderstood&print=true

Aging Well

2/26/09. Psychiatrist George Vaillant, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, offers advice for aging well:

• A good marriage before age 50
• Ingenuity to cope with difficult situations
• Altruistic behavior
• Stop smoking
• Do not use alcohol to the point where your behavior shames you or your family
• Stay physically active. Walk, run, mow your own grass, play tennis or golf
• Keep your weight down
• Pursue education as far as your native intelligence permits
• After retirement, stay creative, do new things, learn how to play again

Worries about Obama

2/24/09. David Brooks writes a succinct op-ed article in the NYT expressing his worries about Obama, a man he no doubt admires.

Brooks writes, "The people in the (Obama) administration are surrounded by a galaxy of unknowns, and yet they see this economic crises as an opportunity to expand their reach, to take bigger risks and, as Obama said on Saturday, to tackle every major problem at once."

Intellectuals often overestimate the power of intelligence to positively influence the complexities of society. Over the years, a diverse group of intellectuals --- such as Friedrich Hayek, Edward Banfield, Reinhold Neibuhr, George Orwell, Michael Oakeshott, and Milton Friedman --- have warned about the limits of top down rationalistic planning to reorganize society.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24brooks.html?ref=opinion

Monday Quotations

2/23/09.


Humour is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.

--- James Thurber (1894 - 1961)


A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

--- George Eliot (1819 - 1880)


Everything is funny as long as it is happening to
Somebody Else.

--- Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

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