Book Review: The Better Angels Of Our Nature

10/1/11. James Q. Wilson reviews Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels Of Our Nature."

Have people become less violent? Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker makes the case that humans are becoming more civilized and suppressing their most violent impulses.

James Q. Wilson:

"...Some facts are not in dispute. There has been a dramatic drop in the homicide rate from the Middle Ages to the present. We know this from detailed studies by archaeologists and by others, such as the political scientist Ted Robert Gurr. Other facts are in dispute: Was the 20th century—with two world wars, the perfection of genocide and the use of forced starvation as a way of compelling political assent—the bloodiest in history'?

You would think so. World War II took 55 million lives. In China, Mao Zedong killed 40 million of his own people. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin murdered 20 million of his. World War I added an additional 15 million to the death lists. The total is 130 million dead bodies. But Mr. Pinker argues that this figure, as ghastly as it is, does not tell the whole story. The more important consideration, he suggests, is what fraction of the living were put to death..."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576537813826824914.html?KEYWORDS=james+q+wilson

Twitter Study Tracks Our Moods

9/30/11. I'm in the mood for...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/science/30twitter.html?_r=3&ref=science&pagewanted=print

Atul Gawande: Personal Best

9/28/11. Athletes and singers have coaches. Should you?

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

Paul Ryan on Health Care

9/28/11. Who's in charge of health care:  the government or the patient?

When are we going to unleash market-forces to improve health care?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/paul-ryan-unavoidable-time-choosing-health-care_594536.html

Obama's Jobs Bill

9/27/11. Yes --- it is that bad.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/94346

Netanyahu at the U.N.: A Speech Worth Reading

9/25/11

http://www.tnr.com/article/tel-aviv-journal/95307/netanyahu-un-speech-peace

Joseph Epstein: Puncturing Our Pretensions

9/24/11. Epstein reflects on La Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680) who perfected pithy verbal darts aimed at deflating our self-deceptions. Better reality instructions you will not get.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576574670901055418.html?KEYWORDS=joseph+epstein

Teenage Brains

9/22/11.

"To see past the distracting, dopey teenager and glimpse the adaptive adolescent within, we should look not at specific, sometimes startling, behaviors, such as skateboarding down stairways or dating fast company, but at the broader traits that underlie those acts.


Let's start with the teen's love of the thrill. We all like new and exciting things, but we never value them more highly than we do during adolescence. Here we hit a high in what behavioral scientists call sensation seeking: the hunt for the neural buzz, the jolt of the unusual or unexpected..."

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/teenage-brains/dobbs-text/2

Book Review: Your Medical Mind

9/22/11.

"...In 'Your Medical Mind,' oncologist Jerome Groopman, and his wife, endocrinologist Pamela Hartzband, offer a road map for navigating the medical maze and the mountains of information that Google searches produce. In an era when the magisterial physician who dictates care is obsolete, the book may be a welcome guide for those who are daunted by the choices they face, ranging from taking a cholesterol-lowering drug to making end-of-life decisions for a loved one..."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566941507724896.html?KEYWORDS=groopman

Excerpt from "Your Medical Mind:"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903791504576584732337016232.html?KEYWORDS=groopman

Nathan Glazer on the Limits of Social Policy

9/21/11. 88 year old Professor Glazer has witnessed the gaps beween the intentions and consequences of American social policy.

“Against the view that to every problem there is a solution, I came to believe that we can have only partial and less than wholly satisfying answers to the social problems in question. Whereas the prevailing wisdom was that social policies would make steady progress in nibbling away at the agenda of problems set by the forces of industrialization and urbanization, I came to believe that although social policy had ameliorated some of the problems we had inherited, it had also given rise to other problems no less grave in their effect on human happiness.”

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_nathan-glazer.html

Richard Dawkins

9/20/11. A passionate atheist, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins seeks to find out why we are here, wonders what life means, and whether their is a purpose to our existence. He once said that we are the lucky ones - because most people are never born.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

American Psychiatric Society

9/18/11.

Yale Psychologist Calls for the End of Individual Psychotherapy

9/18/11. This interview has sparked much controversy.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/13/qa-a-yale-psychologist-calls-for-the-end-of-individual-psychotherapy/

Daniel Kahneman: The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking

9/16/11.
"...If you want to understand intuition, it is very useful to understand perception, because so many of the rules that apply to perception apply as well to intuitive thinking. Intuitive thinking is quite different from perception. Intuitive thinking has language. Intuitive thinking has a lot of world knowledge organized in different ways than mere perception. But some very basic characteristics that we'll talk about of perception are extended almost directly into intuitive thinking..."

http://edge.org/conversation/the-marvels-and-flaws-of-intuitive-thinking

What if the Secret to Success is Failure?

9/16/11.

"...Randolph has been pondering throughout his 23-year career as an educator the question of whether and how schools should impart good character. It has often felt like a lonely quest, but it has led him in some interesting directions. In the winter of 2005, Randolph read “Learned Optimism,” a book by Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania who helped establish the Positive Psychology movement. Randolph found the book intriguing, and he arranged a meeting with the author. As it happened, on the morning that Randolph made the trip to Philadelphia, Seligman had scheduled a separate meeting with David Levin, the co-founder of the KIPP network of charter schools and the superintendent of the KIPP schools in New York City. Seligman decided he might as well combine the two meetings, and he invited Christopher Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, who was also visiting Penn that day, to join him and Randolph and Levin in his office for a freewheeling discussion of psychology and schooling..."       
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?hpw=&pagewanted=all

David Brooks: The Planning Fallacy

9/16/11. Wise people know the limits of their intelligence. Intelligent people don't.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/brooks-the-planning-fallacy.html?_r=1&hp

Bachmann in Overdrive

9/15/11. Michele Bachmann speaks to the dangers of the HPV vaccine. She is eerily uninformed. Enough children are now needlessly dying from not getting life-saving vaccines. Bachmann reminds me of how some liberals fought for the rights of schizophrenic patients to refuse their psychiatric medications.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/09/13/140445104/pediatricians-fact-check-bachmanns-bashing-of-hpv-vaccine

From Scientific American:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/14/vaccine-for-human-papillomavirus-hpv-remains-safe/

Why Obama is Losing the Jewish Vote

9/14/11. Not a surprise.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576568710341742174.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Monday Quotations

9/12/11.

"We see only what we know."

--- Goethe (1749 - 1832)


"Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,
Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is."

--- Shakespeare (1564 - 1616


"None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realise it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'ld like to be, and you lose your true self for ever."

--- Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)


"...he who remains passive when overwhelmed with grief loses his best chance of recovering elasticity of mind."

--- Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)


"In addition to perceived burdensomeness, the other important psychological state in my model of suicidal behavior is the perception that one does not belong --- the feeling that one is alienated from others and not an integral part of a family, circle of friends, or other valued group."

--- Thomas Joiner 

Paul Simon: The Sound of Silence

9/11/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3np0DMxXKzM&feature=share

NY: 9/11/11

9/11/11. NY is safer but the risks remain.

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_terrorism-threat.html





http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576564342677754296.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Interview with John Tierny, co-author with Roy Baumeister of "Willpower"

9/8/11.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=86&load=5996

Book Review: Aping Mankind

9/8/11, Mark Anthony Signorelli reviews Raymond Tallis' book "Aping Mankind:  Neuromania, Darwinitis, and the Misrepresentation of Mankind."

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/96000/sec_id/96000

The Psychologist

9/2/11. Vladimir Nabokov knew much about human nature.

Brian Boyd writes:

"...Psychology fills vastly wider channels now than when Nabokov, in the mid-20th century, refused to sail the narrow course between the Scylla of behaviorism and the Charybdis of Freud. It deals with what matters to writers, readers, and others: with memory and imagination, emotion and thought, art and our attunement to one another, and it does so in wider time frames and with tighter spatial focus than even Nabokov could imagine. It therefore seems high time to revise or refresh our sense of Nabokov by considering him as a serious (and of course a playful) psychologist, and to see what literature and psychology can now offer each other..."

http://theamericanscholar.org/the-psychologist/

Gary Becker: The Great Recession and Government Failure

9/2/11. Nobel economics laureate, and professor of economics at the University of Chicago:

"When comparing the performance of markets to government, markets look pretty darn good."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576536930606933332.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

9/1/11. Information about ADHD on the National Institute of Mental Health Web site.

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhd/index.shtml

TeenScreen

8/31/11. Will students take a mental health test?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904199404576538292146976766.html?KEYWORDS=mental+health+and+the+schools

Gary Burton: The Guy with Four Sticks

8/31/11. A cultural conversation with vibraphonist Gary Burton. His dazzling music with Chick Corea is a bath for the soul.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576538372450564318.html?KEYWORDS=gary+burton

Monday Quotations

8/29/11.

"God bless America.

Land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Thru the night with a light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America,

My home sweet home.

--- Irving Berlin (1888- 1989)

"I got plenty of nothin',

And nothin's plenty for me."

--- Ira Gershwin (1896 - 1983)

"Climb ev'ry mountain,

Ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow

Till you find your dream."

--- Oscar Hammerstein II (1895 - 1960)

I felt a surge of patriotism, inspiration, and fortitude after watching a two-hour documentary on the life of Ray Charles.

Book Review: Willpower

8/27/11. Cordelia Fine reviews "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength," by psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and science writer John Tierny.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576514740237912356.html?KEYWORDS=the+will+in+the+world

Professor Baumeister is the author of many books including my favorite:  "The Cultural Animal. Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life."

Joseph Epstein: What Killed American Lit.

8/27/11.

..."A stranger, freshly arrived from another planet, if offered as his introduction to the United States only this book, would come away with a picture of a country founded on violence and expropriation, stoked through its history by every kind of prejudice and class domination, and populated chiefly by one or another kind of victim, with time out only for the mental sloth and apathy brought on by life lived in the suburbs and the characterless glut of American late capitalism. The automatic leftism behind this picture is also part of the reigning ethos of the current-day English Department..."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576468011530847064.html?KEYWORDS=joseph+epstein

James Q. Wilson: Crime and the Great Recession

8/27/11. A mystery.

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_crime-decline.html

How Dead is Dead?

8/26/11. A lively discussion.

http://www.economist.com/node/21526321

How Hard Is It To Get a Cartoon Into The New Yorker?

8/25/11. Hard.

http://www.slate.com/id/2302171/

Jonah Lehrer: Love is the Opposite of Underwear

8/25/11. The neuroscience writer Jonah Lehrer describes "grit."

On Monday, I had the honor of delivering a convocation speech at Earlham College. I won’t clog up this blog with the full text of my talk, but I thought a few readers might be interested in the brief excerpt below. I’ve written a few times about grit, a personality trait first identified by Angela Duckworth that predicts a large amount of the individual variation in success. (To take but one example: grittier kids are far more likely to win the National Spelling Bee, largely because higher levels of grit allow them to put in more hours of deliberate practice.) While most descriptions of grit focus on perseverance, on having the strength of character to persist in the face of daunting challenges, I thought it was important to emphasize a less obvious feature of the trait, which is the ability to select the right goals in the first place. Here is what I told the students:

Grit is not just about stubborn persistence. It’s no use persisting, after all, if a goal is truly impossible. While you’ve no doubt been bombarded with successful people telling you that dreams always come true, that we just need to believe, that if you can imagine it then it can happen, the dismal reality is that not every goal is worth pursuing. I might want to play in the NBA, but I’m not Spud Webb. I still want to compose the Great American Novel, but I also know that my college creative writing professor was right: I have no talent for fiction. Unless I’m honest about my limitations, I’ll waste time chasing a farfetched future, which quickly gets very very frustrating. Because dreams do come true. But first we need to pick the right one.

So how can we sort the useful long-term goals from the futile ones? How can we make sure that all of our struggle and practice and sacrifice will be worth it? Well, here’s my advice: ask yourself if the goal passes the underwear test.
Let me explain. One of the most deep seated features of the human mind is that it quickly takes things for granted, becoming numb to the predictable perceptions and pleasures of the world. Just think of your underwear. Do you feel it? Are you conscious of it? Of course not. That’s because you’ve adapted to the feel of underwear, habituated to the touch of cotton on your bum.

And this isn’t just about underwear. Psychological adaptation also explains why the first bite of chocolate cake is better than the second, and the second is better than the third. It explains why the first time you use that new iPhone you’re pretty excited, but before long it will just be another thing in your pocket. And then, a few weeks after that, you’ll start complaining that your phone (your phone!) can only hold 10,000 songs or that it downloads streaming videos from Netflix so slowly. The delight has vanished, replaced by the usual dissatisfaction. This is because our brain is designed to be ungrateful, every pleasure a fleeting thing.

What does this have to do with grit and long-term goals? Well, the only dreams worth pursuing are those that pass the underwear test. These are the pursuits that don’t bore us, even after we put in 10,000 hours of practice. They contain the kind of subtle thrills that don’t get old, that we don’t adapt to, that keep us motivated and interested for years and years at a time. Sure, there will be frustrations along the way, but these frustrations don’t feel permanent, which is what allows us to keep on working and learning and improving. Because that’s what it takes to succeed, to accomplish something interesting. Perhaps you want to invent the cure for malaria, or bake a perfect baguette, or create the next Facebook. Whatever – don’t apologize for your obsession. Just be grateful you are obsessed with something, that you’ve found a goal worth getting gritty over. Because if your goals ever feel tedious, if you find them as unnecessary as that last bite of chocolate cake, then you’re never going to put in the necessary work. Grit requires passion. Grit requires love. And love is just another name for what never gets old. Love is the opposite of underwear.

• Post

Most Beautiful National Parks Seen from Space

8/23/11. simply beautiful.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/national-parks-from-space/

Reflections on the Mind

8/23/11. Mirror mirror on the wall...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=reflections-on-the-mind

What are the Happiest States in America?

8/23/11. Hawaii is number 1.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/arts/music/jerry-leiber-rock-n-roll-lyricist-dies-at-78.html?_r=1&hp

Jerry Leiber R.I.P.

8/23/11. Jerry was a talented song writer of pop hits including "Hound Dog," and "Stand by Me."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/arts/music/jerry-leiber-rock-n-roll-lyricist-dies-at-78.html?_r=1&hp

The Decline of Asian Marriage

8/22/11. Reshaping the Asian family.

http://www.economist.com/node/21526350

Prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

8/19/11. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new study showing the increasing prevalence of parent-reported ADHD among children in the United States --- 2003 and 2007.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5944a3.htm?s_cid=mm5944a3_w

Accelerating Artificial Intelligence.

8/18/11. The new world keeps coming faster --- soon your smart phone will be smarter than you.

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/lawreview/colloquy/2010/12/LRColl2010n12McGinnis.pdf

Don't Give Me that Paleolithic Liberalism - It's Not Good Enough For Me

Professor of ancient history - Victor Davis Hanson, describes how some intelligentsia and politicians are riddled with contradictions about helping the downtrodden. 

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/liberal-psychoses/

Are European Social Democracies Successful?

8/16/11. Only if you ignore the facts.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576510200756243420.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Telling It Like It Is on Race and Economics

8/16/11. Thomas Sowell can't help himself --- reality is not optional.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell081611.php3

The Barbarians Inside Britain's Gates

8/14/11. More Dr. Dalrymple.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576504033881168802.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop#printMode

What Happened to Obama?

8/13/11. Obama has been criticized this week from the political left and right about what he doing wrong.

"Nothing happened to Obama," says Norman Podhoretz, former long-time editor of Commentary Magazine.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576502093021646166.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

British Degeneracy on Parade

8/11/11. Former British prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple reports.

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/eon0810td.html

Nassir Ghaemi, M.D.: "A First Rate Madness. Why Mental Illness Enhances Crisis Leadership."

8/9/11. I just read this first rate book. Dr. Ghaemi has written books on concepts of psychiatry, mood disorders, statistics, and the biopsychosocial model ---- all worth reading. There is much to learn here that will provoke heat and light.

Dr. Ghaemi writes:

"The intuition against my thesis has its roots in stigma, I believe. This prejudice underlies the notion that a leader we dislike must be mentally ill, or that mental health inherently is better than mental illness for leadership. These ideas are based on a stigmatizing attitude towards mental illness, the view that it is inherently and completely harmful. Mental illness certainly can be harmful in many ways, but not inherently and completely."
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mood-swings/201108/first-rate-madness

See prior post with excerpt from this book.

Debunking the Paranormal

8/9/11. A psychology professor examines the paranormal.

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/richard-wiseman-on-debunking-paranormal?page=full

Bret Stephens: "Is Obama Really That Smart?"

8/9/11. Not everybody thinks so.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904140604576495932704234052.html

10 Award-Winning Scientific Simulation Videos

8/8/11.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/science-simulation-videos/

Monday Quotations

8/8/11.

[Businessman talking into the telephone:] "No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?"

--- Robert Mankoff (1944 -   )


"Men with pierced ears are better prepared for marriage --- they've experienced pain and bought jewelry."

--- Rita Rudner (1956 -   )


"While taking my noon walk today, I had more morbid thoughts. What is it about death that bothers me so much? Probably the hours. Melnick says the soul is immortal and lives on after the body drops away, but if my soul exists without my body I am convinced all my clothes will be too loose-fitting. Oh, well..."

--- Woody Allen (1935 -   )

An Interview with Jerry Lewis

8/8/11. He just keeps on going...

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/humor/201108/jerry-lewis-interview-gq-august-2011?printable=true&currentPage=1

What Happened to Obama?

8/7/11. Professor of Psychology, Democratic consultant, and author of "The Political Brain," outlines his disappointments in the Obama Presidency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opinion/sunday/what-happened-to-obamas-passion.html?_r=2&hpw=&pagewanted=all

Think Different

8/6/11. Rules for innovators.

http://www.economist.com/node/21525350

Book Review: "Lip Service"

8/6/11. When you're smiling...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904888304576476092585609116.html?KEYWORDS=carol+tavris

Who Gets Drunk and Why?

8/2/11. Some answers and questions.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576482051743844220.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Book Review: "Perplexities of Consciousness," by Eric Schwitzgebel

7/30/11. Nicholas Humphrey, a professor emeritus of psychology, reviews philosopher Schwitzgebel new book. We excel at not getting to know us.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/books/review/perplexities-of-consciousness-by-eric-schwitzgebel-book-review.html?_r=1&ref=books

Mental Illness and Leadership

7/30/11. This is an excerpt from psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi's new book, "A First-Rate Madness:  Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576474451102761640.html?KEYWORDS=ghaemi

Robert Ettinger. R.I.P.

7/29/11. Cryonics inventor --- proponent of freezing people after death to be thawed out in the future. It is still better to be seen than viewed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/us/30ettinger.html?_r=1&hpw

September 11 and Psychology

7/29/11. Some lessons learned on the way to treating trauma.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/health/research/29psych.html?_r=1&ref=health

Unraveling the Mystery of Murderous Minds

7/27/11.Prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple speculates about the mind of a man who is evil incarnate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904888304576476052920894000.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Book Review: "The Believing Brain"

7/27/11. Psychologist and founder of Skeptic magazine, Michael Shermer describes the science behind our belief-dependent reality.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576432011569887724.html?KEYWORDS=shermer

When Gray Days Signal a Problem

7/26/11. Many people suffer with a treatable condition called dysthymia or chronic, low-grade depression. This disorder is frequently missed or mislabeled, leaving too many people to lead lives of quiet desperation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904772304576467993357594526.html?KEYWORDS=dysthymia

A Woman's Place

7/26/11. A modern story about how one of the best of executive talent navigates corporate America.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_auletta?currentPage=all

18 Attributes of Highly Effective Liars

7/25/11. A research psychologist tells the truth about lying.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=18-attributes-of-highly-effective-l-2011-07-07&WT.mc_id=SA_20110721

Austerity in the U.K.

7/25/11. Psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple writes that shrinking government is much harder than expanding it. People want to get what they don't pay for.

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_3_otbie-uk-govt-spending.html

Book Review: An Anatomy of an Addiction

7/24/11. Surgeon and writer ("How People Die") Sherwin Nuland reviews the perceptive new book by Howard Markel: "An Anatomy of an Addiction." Sigmund Freud, William Halsted, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/books/review/an-anatomy-of-addiction-by-howard-markel-book-review.html?_r=1&ref=books&pagewanted=all

Two New Book Reviews on the Life of Physicist Richard Feynman

7/18/11. Feynman was a remarkable human being who created effective explanatory surprises about the nature of reality.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/dramatic-picture-richard-feynman/?pagination=false

Monday Quotations

7/11/11.

"You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."

--- Woody Allen (1935 -   )


"The biggest argument against democracy is a five-minute discussion with the average voter."

---Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)


"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."

--- Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)


"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

---Albert Einstein  (1879 - 1955)


"He is a [sane] man who can have tragedy in his heart and comedy in his head."

---G. K. Chesterton  (1874 - 1936)

The Divorce Generation

7/10/11. The powerful effects of divorce on Generation X.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576430341393583056.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Thinking Away the Pain

7/10/11. We have not learned the limits of the conscious mind to ease physical pain, and much more.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428151831584880.html?KEYWORDS=lehrer

In Defense of Antidepressants

7/10/11. Psychiatrist Peter Kramer reports on research findings claiming that antidepressants are no more effective than placebos.

My clinical experience matches Kramer's review:  antidepressants are often very helpful for treating severe depression, chronic mild depression or dysthymia, and anxiety in children and adults. Antidepressants often contribute to significant benefits of psychological therapy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/opinion/sunday/10antidepressants.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Book Review: Inside Scientology

7/8/11. Father Hubbard and the will to deceive.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304803104576428223909501518.html?KEYWORDS=scientology

Alan Dershowitz. Casey Anthony: The System Worked

7/7/11.  Perhaps the meaning  of "reasonable doubt" has changed with all the crime shows where all criminals are guilty with indisputable forensic evidence generated by powerful computers.  I wonder if being in the court room and hearing all the evidence is ALWAYS a much different experience than watching the trial on TV.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303544604576429783247016492.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Rabinowitz: DSK and the District Attorney

7/6/11. There are some honorable men.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576427592896119826.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

The Great Proselytizer of Orgasm

7/5/11. A new book explores the legacy of Wilhelm Reich.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2011/06/the_great_proselytizer_of_orgasm.html

Stephens: DSK Lesson

7/4/11. Beliefs go one way - then reality intrudes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304490004576422462548199624.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Looking for Someone

6/30/11. Love and the internet.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/04/110704fa_fact_paumgarten?currentPage=all

Top 10 Ways to Protect Your Kids from a High Conflict Divorce

6/30/11. Dr. Joan Kelly offers sound advice about coping with divorce.

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2009/howtodivorce/tips.html

Book Review: The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture

6/26/11. Stefan Kanfer reviews David Mamet's new book --- joining the club of liberals mugged by reality.

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/bc0608sk.html

Joseph Epstein: Heavy Sentences

6/23/11. Joseph Epstein reviews Stanley Fish's "On How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One."

http://www.newcriterion.com/articleprint.cfm/Heavy-sentences-7053

Timothy Leary - Psychologist, Huckster, Personality Researcher, Booster of LSD...

6/23/11. Tune out, tune in, and drop into a newly discovered collection of Leary's papers.

"...Cultural historians will turn to the collection in an effort to shed greater light on this paradoxical figure who typified the acid-fueled, utopian indulgences of a far younger generation..."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/06/turn-on-tune-in-drop-by-the-archives-timothy-leary-at-the-nypl.html

Expert on Mental Illness Reveals Her Own Fight

6/26/11. Reminds me of a quote from psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan:

"We are all more human than otherwise."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/health/23lives.html?hpw

The Brain on Trial

6/20/11. If the brains of criminals are different from law-abiding citizens, should we rethink our laws about criminal responsibility and punishment?

n.b. Dr. Brian Weeks recommended this article.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-brain-on-trial/8520/

A Schizophrenic, a Slain Worker, Troubling Questions

6/17/11.

"The mind can make a heaven out of hell or a hell out of heaven."

--- John Milton (1608 - 1674)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17MENTAL.html?_r=1&ref=health

Anthony Weiner and the National Adultery Ritual

6/16/11. What's the matter with men today?

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-national-adultery-ritual/

What is Social Psychology?

6/15/11. A look at social psychology, the conscious and unconscious mind, and evolution.

http://edge.org/conversation/social_psychological_narrative

Tim Harford: "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure"

6/15/11.  Advice I gave to my kids:  "Everybody makes missnakes."

Ezra Klein interviews author Tim Harford.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/tim-harford-on-failure/2011/05/19/AGB1SvCH_blog.html

Jerome Kagan: The Temperamental Thread

6/14/11. More information about this splendid book.

http://www.dana.org/news/danapressbooks/detail.aspx?id=23486

See my review  June 21, 2010 post.

http://notesofapsychologywatcher.blogspot.com/2010/06/temperamental-thread-how-genes-culture.html

Joseph Epstein: Duh, Bor-ing

6/8/11. Interesting observations about boredom.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/duh-boring/

David Brooks: IMHO

6/8/11. The good sense of the sense of humility.

http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/imho/?pagemode=print

Collapse of a Rotten Edifice

6/7/11. Some elites among us --- the more equals --- have cornered the market with their haughty, self-righteous, morally high ground sermons standing on quicksand.  These big shots - e.g. Spitzer, DSK, Edwards - have powerful rifles with bad aims,  strong IQs, and rotten judgment.

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/

Monday Quotations

6/6/04

"Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from
which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed."

---Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)


"I cannot grasp all that I am."

--- Augustine (354 - 430)


"Man is a masterpiece of creation, if only because no amount of determinism can prevent him from believing that he acts as a free being."

--- Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Dalia Skye Ceresnie's Blog

6/3/11. My smart and beautiful grand-niece has a blog. I wonder what she will do at 6 months?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04kevorkian.html?hpw

R.I.P. Dr. Jack Kevorkian

6/3/11. Dr. Death dies.

His blunt, passionate, audacious, often reckless support for the right to die made him both a hero and villain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04kevorkian.html?hpw


"...Over 130 people died painlessly with the help of these machines and the doctor who invented them. The first was Janet Adkins, a former college instructor on disability, who resolved to kill herself the day she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and did so, with Dr Kevorkian in attendance, in his rusty van in a Michigan campsite. Those who followed her seemed unremarkable: a bus driver, a doctor, a supervisor at a pillow factory and so on, all terminally ill, or so they believed. Studies of those who sought out Dr Kevorkian, however, suggest that though many had a worsening illness, cancer perhaps or a neurological disease, it was not usually terminal. Autopsies showed five people had no disease at all. Those who came to him were more likely to be women than men, often unmarried and typically ill-at-ease when talking to doctors. Little over a third were in pain. Some presumably suffered from no more than hypochondria or depression..."
http://www.economist.com/node/18802492

National Dating Standards Lowered

6/3/11. The Federal Government took steps to lower the national dating standards, although many groups protested that mandating lower standards was not possible.

http://www.theonion.com/video/national-dating-standards-lowered,20647/

On David Eagleman

6/2/11. A man of many talents.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/printthis.php?file=feature5.php&issue=2011-06-01

Thomas Sowell on Seductive Beliefs

6/1/11. The toxic mix of envy, haves, and have nots.

Seductive Beliefs        http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell053111.php3

Seductive Beliefs II    http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell060111.php3