"Short"

5/12/10. When I meet with kids who feel bad about being short, I tell them my definition of short:

"You are short if when you walk your feet do not touch the ground."

 Jane Brody, a short, talented NYT science writer reports on short facts.

Short comments welcome.

An excerpt from this excellent book:

"I didn’t find any studies that really supported the idea that being short was a disadvantage—even those much-publicized studies that seem to say small people earn less than taller folks. Beyond that, I knew that science can be manipulated and misused, but even I was surprised to see how far people stretched it. I spoke with David Sandberg, a researcher whose groundbreaking work showed that the overwhelming majority of short kids actually cope pretty well with being small. His studies showed that their height doesn’t cause them deep psychological stress, and in fact he found that other kids did not see them in a demeaning way. … Sandberg was startled to find that his work was being cited to the FDA to support the notion that small kids do have big problems!"

So much for the short excuse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/health/11brod.html?src=me&ref=homepage

"For Crime, Is Anatomy Destiny?"

5/12/10. There is a developing science on the relationships between physical traits --- such as height, weight, or attractiveness --- and income, and crime, and more. Is it all in the genes?..or is evolution playing tricks on us?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/books/11crime.html?ref=books&src=me&pagewanted=all

"Is Courage a Masculine Virtue?"

5/12/10. Professor Harvey Mansfield says, "sort of..." I say "no." What do you say? Please comment.

http://incharacter.org/pro-con/is-courage-a-masculine-virtue/

"Silence, PLEASE"

5/5/10. A former prison psychiatrist muses about silence.

Dr. Darlrymple notes, for example:

"...Many young people behave as if silence disturbs them in a way in which noise disturbs me. They tell me, for example, that they cannot concentrate unless there is electronic stimulus of one kind or another in their background. The bright, idle, mindless vulgar chatter of pop radio stations, or equivalent, not only does not destroy their concentration (they say), but is essential to its exercise. They do not mind, or notice, that there is more than one kind of such stimulus: cacophony is not a category to them..."



http://incharacter.org/features/silence-please/

How Do Birds Fly South?

5/4/10. Scientists in Austria say birds may use quantum mechanics to guide the flight south.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-05/quantum-mechanics-may-help-birds-migrate-south

"Honey, Do You Have To?"

5/2/10. Elizabeth Bernstein offers some ideas about what makes a marriage work.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194040423167792.html?mod=WSJ_hps_RIGHTTopCarousel#

"Hurry Up and Wait"

4/30/10. Clive Thompson reviews Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's "Bursts."

"It turns out that this pattern—explosions of activity, followed by quiet—are not just a personal quirk of mine. Odds are, you deal with your email in much the same way. According to Albert-László Barabási's "Bursts," this "bursty" pattern governs almost everything we do and even much of what happens in the natural world."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704302304575214081160026018.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

"Humor in Hopelessness"

4/30/10. Joseph Epstein reviews "Zeno's Conscience," by Ettore Schmitz a.k.a. Italo Svevo.

Epstein writes, "Svevo's subject is the weakness of the will, or abulia, and how a dreamy nature has little chance up against the temptations set out by the amazing and obdurate reality of life. In "Zeno's Conscience," Zeno Cosini, an unexceptional Trieste businessman, pits his will against the enslaving habit of smoking, the complexities of courtship, the delights of philandery, the discipline required by business, and loses every time, yet cannot quite be said to go down in defeat."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704187204575101902834652726.html?mod=WSJ_Leisure+%26+Arts_MIDDLEFeatures

THE ASH CLOUD

4/26/10. What do the scientists --- especially the experts on the psychology of decision-making --- have to say about the ash cloud?

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ash_cloud10/ash_cloud10_index.html

"The Equal Pay Day Reality Check"

4/21/10. Philosopher and feminist Christina Hoff Sommers challenges the belief of wage discrimination between American men and women.

http://www.american.com/archive/2010/april/the-equal-pay-day-reality-check?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+American+(AMERICAN.COM+--+A+Magazine+of+Ideas%2C+Online)&utm_content=Google+Reader

Michigan Psychological Association, Distinguished Psychologist Award, 2010

4/18/10. Recognition from my peers - How sweet it is.

I am grateful to MPA for this honor and the opportunities I’ve had to serve Michigan psychologists. To teach is to learn twice. And, to serve MPA is to never stop learning. And I have learned so much meeting psychologists from around the state and across the country. I have made some good friends.

I thank the MPA President, Dr. Bill Bloom, the MPA Board, and our Executive Director, Dr. Judith Kovach, and the President of MPF, Richard Lobenthal. Congratulations to Dr. Carol Ellstein on receiving the Beth Clark Award, and Dr. Jeff Andert for receiving the Past President award. Without these people --- and you, my work could not have been carried out.

I especially want to thank my friend and colleague, Dr. Jack Haynes. We have worked together on behalf of MPA for many years. And now it is time to reveal a secret: Jack and I are identical twins, separated at birth and reared apart, and were reunited through the Minnesota twin studies.

Whenever I think about awards, I remember what the comedian Jack Benny said when he received an award. Jack Benny said, “I don’t deserve this award --- but I have arthritis, and I don’t deserve that either.”

I have been a lucky guy. I had two parents who stayed together and raised 5 kids. I had a wise, child amusing father and have a resilient, caring mother who turns 90 next January. My brothers and sister and I have spent many good times together.

And I am grateful for every hour I spent fishing with my brothers and dad, seriously pursuing so much silliness. There are many life lessons that fishing teaches.

Unless you go into a field such as psychology you may forget to count your blessings. You don’t know how many people are secretly unhappy; you don’t know how few adults there are in the world; you don’t know how many people come from ruptured, troubled families; and you don’t know how many people have so little to draw on from their memory banks of good times; and you don’t know how to explain so much resilience to life’s struggles from many seemingly ordinary people.

And I have been lucky in love. I have been addicted to one woman for 37 years and I have no plans to attend rehab. I could not have gotten distinguished without here. And we are both proud of our two daughters Barb and Sharon and son-in-law Dan who is a newly minted psychologist. Patty is in New York this weekend with her high school theater group performing plays on violence prevention.

My brother and his wife, Mike and Paula Ceresnie are here and I’m glad they could come. They have always been by my side during many terrific times and some rough patches.

I have also been lucky in teachers. I have been meeting with Dr. Joseph Fischhoff for many years, a now retired child psychiatrist from Children’s Hospital in Detroit. I first met Joe when he was a consultant to a Federally Funded Grant on Child Abuse that was part of my dissertation. I once asked Joe when I should raise my prices, his reply captures the definition of a distinguished psychologist: “When you get gray hair and hemorrhoids. Gray hair is for wisdom. Hemorrhoids are for the look of concern.”

I cannot overestimate the influence of my Uncle George Horwich, a Professor of Economics at Purdue for 50 years. We talked at least once a week for many years. His recent death leaves a huge hole in my life and the life of my siblings and mother. In one tribute to George a colleague said, ”He was an intellectual in the truest and most fundamental sense of that word. He never stopped trying to solve economic problems and make the world a better place”.

As you know, this is an exciting time to be a psychologist. Dr. Erdberg and this conference on “Personality Disorders” is a fine example of that excitement and knowledge.

Our romance with ingenious grand theories of how the mind works are giving way to an empirical approach to mental health assessments and treatments. We are turning to the new findings generated by such developing fields as neuroscience, cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, neuroimaging and behavioral genetics, to name but a few.

Despite our growing knowledge base, we still don’t understand the mystery of how the brain creates the mind and generates self-consciousness, the basic experience of humans on which our social and personal relationships rest. We do not understand how consciousness is produced, nor do we understand its full potential.

We still have such little science to guide us in understanding, and helping patients --- not to mention offering scientific explanations for their vulnerabilities, sufferings and resilience.

We all have so many questions, and our answers often take the form of myths, beliefs, religions and stories to tell us the “truth.”

One truth is that we can’t control the length of our life…but we can control the width. My experiences over many years with MPA have certainly contributed to widening my life. For this I am grateful. Thank you for this award.

Steven J. Ceresnie, Ph.D.
Distinguished Psychologist 2010
Michigan Psychological Association
Lansing, MI
April 16, 2010

My 9 minutes and 12 seconds of fame on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxb5l3p3BkM

"Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

4/17/10. Married, single, neither is a solution...Or is it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/magazine/18marriage-t.html?ref=homepage&src=me&pagewanted=print

"The Symphony of a Lifetime"

4/1610. Joseph Epstein on living a life.

http://magazine.nd.edu/news/14935/

Memoirs of People with Schizophrenia

4/15/10. This is a review of some memoirs describing living with schizophrenia.

http://www.bookforum.com/booklist/3925

"The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World"

4/15/10. Jonah Lehrer reviews a new book by Iain McGilchrist, who studied literature before becoming a medical doctor.

http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/017_01/5384

"Why Women Don't Want Macho Men"

4/10/10. A mix of evolutionary psychology and cross-cultural study leads to some surprising findings.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704100604575145810050665030.html

"The Pain of Losing a Spouse is Singular"

4/6/10. NYT science writer Jane E. Brody writes about the pain of losing her husband Richard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06cases.html

"Mind Games"

4/6/10. ADHD is well-known disorder that is not known well. This article on ADHD in adults presents some important information on this often misunderstood psychiatric disorder.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304620304575165902933059076.html?KEYWORDS=adhd

"Depressed Pilots Can Fly On Medication"

4/3/10. The FAA has agreed to allow pilots who take antidepressant medication to fly. A regulatory agency with such expertise in aviation finally takes its head out of the sand.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304871704575159740692643072.html?KEYWORDS=pilots+and+antidepressants

Remembering Rodney Dangerfield

4/1/10. Rodney Dangerfield died on October 5, 2004, in Los Angeles. He was eighty-two years old.

"I was an ugly kid. I worked in a pet store.
People kept asking how big I get."

"With my wife, I got no sex life. She cut me
down to once a month. Hey, I'm lucky ---
two guys I know she cut out completely."

"When I was a kid I worked tough places --- places like
Fonzo's Knuckle Room,Aldo's formerly Vito's, formerly Nunzio's.
That was a tough one, Nunzio's. I sat down to eat. On the
Menu, they had broken leg of lamb."

"I live in a tough neighborhood. When I plan my
budget, I allow for holdup money."

"With girls, I don't get no respect. I went out with a
belly dancer. She told me I turned her stomach."

"When I was a kid, I got no respect. I was
kidnapped. They sent my parents a piece of my
finger. My old man said he wanted more proof."

"The other night, I had a date with a manicurist. We went to a nightclub.
We started to hold hands. And while she was holding my hand,
she took my other hand and put it in my drink."

"I told my doctor I broke my arm in two places.
He told me to keep out of those places."

"We were poor. We were so poor, in my neighborhood, the rainbow was in
black-and white."

Self-Esteem vs. Self-Respect

3/30/10. You can have too much self-esteem but not too much self-respect.

http://incharacter.org/features/theodore-dalrymple-on-self-esteem-vs-self-respect/

"Basically an Optimist' - Still

3/27/10. Nobel economist Gary Becker predicts that the American people can be trusted to vote for limited government in November.

Professor Becker says:

"Here in the United States, we spend about 17% of our GDP on health care, but out-of-pocket expenses make up only about 12% of total health-care spending. In Switzerland, where they spend only 11% of GDP on health care, their out-of-pocket expenses equal about 31% of total spending. The difference between 12% and 31% is huge. Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094104575144011906222520.html

Eminent particle physicist finds the unseen realities of religion

3/27/10. This is a interview with John Polkinghorne, one of the founders of the quark who went on to become an Anglican priest. He is the founder of the International Society for Science and Religion and of the Society of Ordained Science.

http://incharacter.org/features/john-polkinghornes-unseen-realities/

"We Have Crossed the Rubicon"

3/24/10. Victor Davis Hanson says America has crossed the threshold into the belly of government control of health care and more.

http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson032210.html

Friends

3/24/10. Why and how do friendships end? Some answers and questions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704841304575137593670999872.html?KEYWORDS=friends

"The Fix is In"

3/23/10. Why the British Health System spends so much and gets so little.

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon0322td.html

Fess Parker, R.I.P.

3/19/20. Thank to Fess Parker, a.k.a. Davy Crockett, my brothers and I were the only kids we knew with real coonskin caps --- compliments of our furrier father.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/arts/television/19parker.html?hpw

Obama's Health Reform Illusions

3/16/10. Journalist Robert Samuelson dissects Obama's health care reform and finds smoke and mirrors.

Samuelson writes:

"One job of presidents is to educate Americans about crucial national problems. On health care, Barack Obama has failed. Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong. Great simplicities and distortions have been peddled in the name of achieving "universal health coverage." The miseducation has worsened as the debate approaches its climax..."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/03/15/obamas_health_proposal_is_the_illusion_of_reform.html

"Addiction: A Disorder of Choice"

1/16/10.Psychiatrist Sally Satel reviews "Addiction: A Disorder of Choice," by Gene M. Hyman

Dr. Satel writes:

"Now comes an important and provocative book called Addiction: A Disorder of Choice by the psychologist Gene Heyman, a research psychologist at McLean Hospital and a lecturer at Harvard. Heyman mounts a devastating assault on the brain-based model of addiction. Not that he views addiction as independent of the brain—no serious person could even entertain such a claim. What he rejects, however, is the notion that excessive drug or alcohol consumption is an irresistible act wholly beyond the user’s control, as the term “addiction,” commonly understood, implies. If anything, Heyman writes, “[a]ddiction … helps us understand voluntary behavior.” How so? “[B]ecause,” he explains, “it is not possible to understand addiction without understanding how we make choices.”

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/addiction-and-freedom

"Everybody Have Fun"

3/15/10. Can research on happiness inform social policy?

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/03/22/100322crbo_books_kolbert

"The Changing American Family"

3/15/10. Professor Herbert S. Klein on the unprecedented changes in the American family during the past 20 years.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3020821.html

"Keats was Wrong"

3/14/10. New Yorker cartoonist Robert Mankoff on Keats, wit and humor.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonists/2010/03/beauty.html

Health Care and the Market

3/15/10. Should we use the forces of the free-market to improve health care?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704784904575111663868068550.html?KEYWORDS=book+review+healthcare

Michigan Psychological Association Newsletter

3/10/10. First Quarter: 2010.

http://www.michiganpsychologicalassociation.org/associations/8731/MPA_News_1st_qtr_2-10.pdf

"The Battle of the Brain"

3/10/10.

Iain McGilchrist:

"Why is the brain divided? If it is about making connections, why has evolution so carefully preserved the segregation of its hemispheres? Almost every function once thought to be the province of one or other hemisphere—language, imagery, reason, emotion—is served by both hemispheres, not one."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574609992107994238.html

"On the Origins of Comics"

3/10/10.

Brian Boyd:

"Comics can have almost no mass and yet be the most mass of mass arts: Garfield has had up to 263 million readers a day. Comics constitute a new art, just over a century old, and usually an unusually accessible one. So what can evolution add to our understanding of comics?"


http://aliceandrews.tumblr.com/

"When Anger Is An Illness"

3/9/10.

"Scream at the boss? Snap at a colleague? Throw your cell phone into your @#$%%&* computer monitor? If so, you may find yourself headed to anger-management classes, which have become an all-purpose antidote for fit-throwing celebrities, chair-throwing coaches, vandals, road ragers, delinquent teens, disruptive airline passengers, and obstreperous employees."

Demand for treatment of the anger-prone cannot keep up with the supply.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575109671604585094.html?KEYWORDS=when+anger+is+an+illness

"Thank You For Not Expressing Yourself"

3/6/10. "Not every devotee of reason is himself reasonable: that is a lesson that the convinced, indeed militant, atheist, Richard Dawkins, has recently learned...He ran a website for people of like mind, but noticed that many of the comments that appeared on it were beside the point, either mere gossip or insult..."

So writes Theodore Dalrymple (a.k.a Anthony Daniels) retired psychiatrist from London, England who worked in a prison.

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/58706/sec_id/58706

Novels of Ideas

3/5/10. Author Rebecca Goldstein ("36 Arguments for the Existence of God. A Work of Fiction") names her pick for the 5 best novels of ideas:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704299804575095531114336268.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_TOPRightCarousel

"Romance Novels and Evolutionary Psychology"

3/5/10. Evolutionary psychology explains females' attraction to romance novels.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/04/evolutionary-psychologists-romantic-fiction

"Alice in Health Care"

3/2/10. Economist Thomas Sowell discusses what happens when health care meets Alice in Wonderland.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/03/02/alice_in_health_care_104606.html

Surviving Death

3/2/10. Surrounded by true believers in life after death, Skeptic's magazine editor Michael Schermer argues for death as the end, on - of all places - "The Larry King Show."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=surviving-death-on-larry-king-live&print=true

What Motivates Us?

3/2/10. Five questions for Daniel Pink, author of new book on motivation among other insightful books.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/bookclub/2010/02/five-questions-for-daniel-h-pink.html

"It's Not Too Late to Save 'Normal'"

3/1/10 Psychiatrist Allen Francis writes about the pitfalls of changing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, last revised in 1994.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-frances1-2010mar01,0,2030641.story

Jonah Lehrer: "Depression's Upside"

3/1/10. Why has depression survived millions of years of evolution?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=print

"HEAD CASE: Can Psychiatry Be A Science"

2/24/10. Louis Menand reviews two books on the treatment of depression and examines psychiatry's claim to be a science.

My view is psychiatry can be a science, and has made significant progress --- but the field is still way behind the scientific accomplishments in all other medical specialties --- about 200 years behind.

A core reason for the elementary knowledge base in psychiatry is that we have no idea how the brain produces the mind and generates consciousness.

To compound matters, we have no reliable biological markers such as blood tests or brain scans for any mental disorder. And, we do not know the etiology of psychiatric disorders. We have a diagnostic manual of mental disorders crammed with too many lists of recipes, too many cooks, and too little science.

Yet depression is real and effective treatments are available. Read "Darkness Visible" by William Styron, or "The Unquiet Mind," by Kay Jamison.

Some depressions fit the etiology of the disease model and respond well to medicine.

Some people get life-saving benefits from antidepressants; some people develop self-knowledge, confidence, and coping skills from psychological therapy; and people who take antidepressant medication and go for psychological therapy often have the best outcome.

Both antidepressant therapies and psychology therapies are both underused. The stigma of mental illness still touches the lives of many people and their families. Many depressed patients never seek help, or when they do, they do not get the help they need.

It is not just politicians who labor under rigid ideologies. With so little and often contrary scientific findings, many mental health professionals still subscribe to either biological or psychological treatment ideologies.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/03/01/100301crat_atlarge_menand?currentPage=all

Blame ________ for Diseases

2/24/10. No --- not your parents, not your doctor, not the pharmaceutical companies, and not the environment.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704454304575081613327728110.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

"Evidence that Little Touches Do Mean So Much"

2/23/10. NYT science writer Benedict Carey:

"...in recent years some researchers have begun to focus on a different, often more subtle kind of wordless communication: physical contact. Momentary touches, they say - whether an exuberant high five, a warm hand on the shoulder, or a creepy touch to the arm - can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and sometimes do so more quickly and accurately than words."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23mind.html?ref=science

"Matters of Life and Death"

2/22/10. "Two fathers' memories shows that grief has no political affiliation.

http://www.city-journal.org/printable.php?id=5973

Monday Quotations

2/22/10.

(referring to jazz:) "The Sound of Surprise."

--- Whitney Balliett (1926 - 2007 )


"Analogies decide nothing, that is true, but they can make one feel more at home."

--- Sigmund Freud (1856 - 193)


"No one can answer for his courage when he has never been in danger."

--- la Rochefoucauld (1747 - 1827)


"'Hope' is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul ---
And sings the tune without
And never stops - at all."

---Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

"Life Among the 'Yakkity Yaks'"

2/19/10. Interview with Temple Grandin "doctor of animal science, ground-breaking cattle expert, easily the most famous autistic woman in the world."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575061123564007514.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

"Modern Love: Scientific Insights from 21st Century Dating"

2/19/10/ Association for Psychological Science Staff Writer Ann Conkle opens her article with the following:

"The modern world provides two new ways to find love --- online matchmaking and speed dating. In the last few years, these methods have moved from a last resort for the loveless to a more accepted way for millions to try to meet their mates. While this has led to dates, relationships and marriage around the globe, it has also been a boon for enterprising researchers - providing huge datasets chronicling real world behavior. Psychological scientists have been studying attraction, love, and romantic relationships for decades..."

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/

"Prescriptions for Psychiatric Trouble"

2/18/10. Psychiatrist Sally Satel offers her views on the troubles with the 5th edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. This revision of psychiatric diagnoses has too many recipes for psychiatric troubles, too many cooks preparing the categories, and too little science.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703525704575061851569968656.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

"Why Do People Become Lactose Intolerant?"

2/17/10.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703562404575067264166151750.html?KEYWORDS=lactose+intolerance

The Yiddish are Coming

2/17/10. So "How is Yiddish doing?," asks Professor Ruth Wisse. Her survey may surprise you.

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/02/yiddish_rises_again.html

"Empathy's Natural, but Nurturing It Helps"

2/16/10. NYT science writer Jane Brody writes about the importance of developing empathy in children..."Lacking empathy, people act only out of self-interest, without regard for the well-being or feelings of others. The absence of empathy fosters antisocial behavior, cold-blooded murder, genocide...Healthy self-esteem is essential to empathy..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/16brod.html?ref=health&pagewanted=print

Monday Quotations

2/15/10.

"I cannot believe the purpose of life is to be 'happy.' I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is above all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you have lived at all."

--- Leo C. Rosten (1908 - 1997)


"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

--- Steven Wright (1955 - )


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

--- Sir Peter Medawar (1915 - 1987)

Human Nature

2/12/10. A colleague asked me whether my opinions about human nature have changed over the years. Here is my response:

• Human nature is deeply woven with contradictions, conflicts, and discontents.
  
• Genetics and environments are equally important contributions to understanding human nature.
  
• The proper use of reason is to recognize reason’s limitations. Reason is the “rider” holding the reins on the “elephant” of unconscious desires and values.
  
• Understanding human nature springs from the mystery of the generation of consciousness.
• Consciousness is the basic experience of humans on which our social and personal relationships rest.
  
• We do not understand how consciousness is produced nor do we understand its full potential.
  
• There is little science that applies to our understanding of human nature. So our understanding of human nature takes the form of stories, religions, ideologies, and beliefs.

"Opening Pandora's Box"

2/12/10. More on DSM-V, the psychiatric bible. A list of symptoms is never a substitute for clinical experience and judgment.

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/home/content/article/10168/1522341?pageNumber=2&verify=0

"Disorder Out of Chaos"

1/11/10. Updating our ideas about what autism is. If only we had some biological marker of this disorder, perhaps we could make more order out of chaos and bring some effective treatments to bear on this often disabling condition of the mind.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/opinion/10grinker.html

"The Limits of Bioethics"

2/10/10. Psychiatrist Sally Satel discusses where the profession of bioethics ends and politics begins.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/82722522.html

Revising the Book on Disorders of the Mind

2/10/10. The 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is due in 2013. What are some of the proposed changes in psychiatric disorders?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/10psych.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704182004575055363825943790.html?KEYWORDS=diagnostic+and+statistical+manual+psychiatry

"Happy Couples Kiss and Tell"

2/9/10. Some words of wisdom on what makes a marriage last.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703615904575053161639498630.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

"The New Dating Game. Back to the New Paleolithic Age"

2/9/10. So what would Darwin say if he came back and saw the evolution of sexual escapades between modern men and women?

http://weeklystandard.com/print/articles/new-dating-game?page=12

"When to Worry if Your Child has Too Few Words"

2/08/10. Useful information from pediatrician Perri Klass in the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/health/09klass.html?hpw

"Good Grief"

2/8/10. On death, dying and grieving.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/02/01/100201crat_atlarge_orourke?printable=true

Monday Quotations

2/8/10.

"An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make people laugh."

--- Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)


"There are two types of people in the world: good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more."

--- Woody Allen (1935 - )



"A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes."

--- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)

Humor and the Brain

2/8/10. Humor is a complex process --- and no laughing matter when it comes to how jokes affect the brain.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527451.400-the-comedy-circuit-when-your-brain-gets-the-joke.html?full=true&print=true

Seymour B. Sarason R.I.P.

2/8/10. The life of psychologist Seymour Sarason, an author of more than 40 books, who applied his insights on social psychology to help many. He founded the field of community psychology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08sarason.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print

Old Cars - watch to the end!

2/6/10. I saw my 1957 Plymouth.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/sets/72157604247242338/show/with/2346008881/

"A Mind So Different"

2/4/10. "The story of Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism at age 4 and in time a symbol of hope for the afflicted, has made its way to the screen with spellingbinding results," says Dorothy Rabinowitz, a member of the WSJ editorial board - on this Saturday, 8- 10 p.m. EST, on HBO.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704259304575043741307874012.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_TOPRightCarousel

A review from the NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/arts/television/05grandin.html?em

EPsychologist

2/4/10. Interested in psychology? Check out this helpful Web site.

http://www.epsychologist.org/

The New Science of Sleep

2/3/10. All you want to know about sleep apnea.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575039101390202576.html

The Lancet's Vaccine Retraction

2/3/10. The British medical journal The Lancet issued a full retraction of a study it ran in 1998 linking measles-mumps-rubella vaccines to autism.

Even prestigious journals can be conduits for junk science. And promoting this junk science in such a well respected periodical lead to a decline in children's vaccination rates, a significant increase in preventable diseases, and death.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704022804575041544115791952.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop#printMode

"Health Care: Who Knows 'Best'"?

2/2/10. Dr. Jerome Groopman discusses the role of behavioral economics and comparative effectiveness research in reforming health care.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23590

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

"Seeking a Cure for Optimism"

12/31/09. Hope springs eternal in the healthy, but not in many intellectuals who make a living knowing things that aren't true.

This NYT article takes a swipe at Positive Psychology, a movement that Professor Martin E.P. Seligman started in 1998. Positive Psychology has attracted some of the best and brightest psychologists and psychiatrists, among other professionals, and spawned some important, well designed research studies on such topics as character, virtues, and enhancing human experience. This emphasis on looking for what is positive in human experience is a much needed corrective to years of only examining psychopathology.

This article quotes the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, a congenital sourpuss, with a long history of applying her Marxist world view --- and I don't mean Groucho --- to helping the poor and downtrodden, barely disguising her smug attitudes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/fashion/31positive.html?_r=1&em

"Obama and Our Post-Modern Race Problem"

12/30/09. Shelby Steele on race and American politics.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704254604574614540488450188.html

"Information - For Better or Worse"

12/28/09. Journalist Robert Samuelson reflects on his 40 year career getting to the "truth."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/12/28/information_is_power_--_for_better_or_worse_99705.html

Monday Quotations

12/28/09.


"I went to a restaurant that serves 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance."

--- Steven Wright (1955 - )


"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

--- Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

In physics the truth is rarely perfectly clear, and that it certainly universally the case in human affairs. Hence, what is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth."

--- Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

"What My Daughter Taught Me About Compassion"

12/27/09. Former 60's radical, editor of Ramparts Magazine, friend of the Black Panthers, author of "Radical Son," and now conservative social critic, David Horowitz tells the story of what he learned from his daughter - a passionate liberal --- who recently died.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703939404574568361975770866.html