psychobabble

Nocturne In D Flat Maj. Op 27 No. 2 - F. Chopin performed by...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:09:46 -0800

Nocturne In D Flat Maj. Op 27 No. 2 - F. Chopin

The Conceit of Deceit: How people make up good reasons for bad behaviour (The Economist)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:51:52 -0800

The Conceit of Deceit: How people make up good reasons for bad behaviour (The Economist):

YOU are deciding between two magazines to read. The one you choose just happens to feature photos of women in very small swimsuits. But you do not, you claim, pick that particular magazine for the bathing beauties; it happens to have more interesting articles, or better coverage of copper mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You will say this even in the midst of a lab experiment that has been set up so that the only possible difference between the two magazines is the presence (or absence) of swimsuits.

Such was the finding of Zoë Chance, a doctoral student, and Michael Norton, a marketing professor, both at Harvard Business School. The pair were investigating how people justify “questionable” behaviour (Mr Norton’s word) to themselves after the fact. They asked 23 male students to choose between two sports magazines, one with broader coverage and one with more feature articles. The magazine which also happened to contain a special swimsuit issue was picked three-quarters of the time, regardless of the other content. But asked why they chose that particular magazine, the subjects pointed to either the sports coverage or the greater number of features—whichever happened to accompany the bikinis.

This may not seem surprising: the joke about reading Playboy for the articles is so old Ms Chance and Mr Norton borrowed it for the title of their working paper. But it is the latest in a series of experiments exploring how people behave in ways they think might be frowned upon, and then explain how their motives are actually squeaky clean.

Managers, for example, have been found to favour male applicants at hypothetical job interviews by claiming that they were searching for a candidate with either greater education or greater experience, depending on the attribute with which the man could trump the woman. In another experiment, people chose to watch a movie in a room already occupied by a person in a wheelchair when an adjoining room was showing the same film, but decamped when the movie in the next room was different (thus being able to claim that they were not avoiding the disabled person but just choosing a different film to watch). As Ms Chance puts it: “People will do what they want to do, and then find reasons to support it.”

poetry as tonic, #10

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:51:51 -0800

Autumn Sonata

If I can let you go as trees let go
Their leaves, so casually, one by one;
If I can come to know what they do know,
That fall is the release, the consummation,
Then fear of time and the uncertain fruit
Would not distemper the great lucid skies
This strangest autumn, mellow and acute.
If I can take the dark with open eyes
And call it seasonal, not harsh or strange
(For love itself may need a time of sleep),
And, treelike, stand unmoved before the change,
Lose what I lose to keep what I can keep,
The strong root still alive under the snow,
Love will endure - if I can let you go.

- May Sarton

'In Treatment' to return to HBO for third season!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:51:10 -0800

'In Treatment' to return to HBO for third season!:

HBO announced Friday that it has ordered a third season of the drama “In Treatment”, which stars Gabriel Byrne as therapist Paul Weston.

A third season had been in some doubt, as Byrne has said in interviews that he finds the role (which he plays very well) quite challenging. That’s understandable; his character is in almost every scene and much of his work involves reacting to and working through thorny issues with the sometimes challenging patients in his care.

The show is changing head writers again, as it has done every season so far. Anya Epstein of HBO’s “Tell Me You Love Me” and Danny Futterman (“Capote”) will take over from Season 2 showrunner Warren Leight.

The show goes into production early next year in New York.

Church May Not Provide Support for Depressed (Psych Central)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:32:19 -0800

Church May Not Provide Support for Depressed (Psych Central):

An ongoing study by a well-respected Baptist university has found that local churches may not be the best place to receive counseling or support for mental illness.

Baylor University researchers built upon a 2008 study that found nearly a third of those who approached their local church in response to a personal or family member’s previously-diagnosed mental illness were told they really did not have mental illness.

In the new study, investigators discovered individuals experiencing anxiety and depression were dismissed the most often.

The finding is important as research consistently shows that clergy — not psychologists or other mental health experts — are the most common source of help sought in times of psychological distress. Furthermore, authorities believe 50 percent of individuals suffering from depression or anxiety go undiagnosed.

The Baylor researchers surveyed 168 pastors affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT). As a whole, the sample consisted of large, affluent congregations in suburban settings with senior pastors who were highly educated, predominantly Caucasian and theologically conservative.

The Baylor study found that despite recognizing a biological basis to all mental illness, the views of the BGCT pastors surveyed vary across disorders in how much they believe environmental or spiritual factors, such as personal sin, lack of faith or demonic involvement, play a role.

Major depressive disorders and anxiety disorders were viewed by pastors as having greater environmental and spiritual involvement and were more often dismissed than the more “severe” mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

The study also found that pastors viewed inconsistent parenting as the main driving force behind ADHD.

Pastors viewed medication as more effective in disorders seen as predominantly biological, compared to those with greater environmental or spiritual involvement.

“The results are troubling because the demographic of this sample is considered to have the most and easiest access to mental health care, but yet, by their admission, they seem unwilling to access mental health care that is available to their congregants,” said Dr. Matthew Stanford, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, who led the study.

“A majority of them also do not believe they come into contact with very many congregants that have a legitimate mental illness, however we know roughly one in four Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness this year, making it likely that they will come in contact with it.”

In addition, the study found for those congregants with mental illness, the BGCT pastors surveyed were reluctant to refer to mental health professionals who the pastors perceived or knew not to be Christian. When a mental health professional was known to be a Christian, the likelihood of referral by pastors was much higher.

On "digital forgetting" (Wired)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:23:11 -0800

On "digital forgetting" (Wired):

Have we forgotten how to forget? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger worries about this. In September, the associate professor of public policy at Singapore University, who is affiliated with Harvard, published a fascinating book, Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age. In it, he argues that technology has inverted our millennia-old relationship with memory.

For most of history, almost everything people did was forgotten because it was so hard to record and retrieve things. But this had a benefit: “social forgetting” allowed us to move on from embarrassing moments. Digital tools have eliminated this: Google caches copies of blog posts; networking sites thrive by archiving our daily dish. Society defaults to a relentless Proustian remembrance of all things past.

We live with a fear that what we do online may return to haunt us. “We’ve become so cautious in what we say or do,” says Mayer- Schönberger. As society suffers when people stop taking risks, Mayer-Schönberger argues that we need to stop creating tools that automatically remember everything. Instead,we need to design them to forget.

And software developers are doing just that. A good example is drop.io. It’s a “private sharing” service where users upload files and receive a URL to give to who they like. Photographers, for instance, can use it to notify clients of photos they want kept secret. But drop.io is unique in that you assign expiration dates to what you upload. It could be in a few hours, a month, or “after five people have seen it”. If no date is set, the default is a year. When it expires, the file is gone. Of the millions of files uploaded in the past 18 months, two-thirds no longer exist. As CEO Sam Lessin says, drop.io files are “like wormholes that pop in and out of existence for a specific purpose”.

Another good example of intentional forgetting is the Guest Pass feature on Flickr. Like drop.io, it lets you share specified photo streams by creating dedicated URLs you can email to those you want to see them. According to senior engineer Kellan Elliott- McCrea, about 11 percent of Flickr members use Guest Pass, mostly for snapshots of kids, homes, weddings and parties, the kind of stuff you want to show off, while being able to make it go poof. There are no guarantees - someone could take a file they’ve been granted temporary access to and repost it for all to see, forever. But users tend to respect the system that’s engineered for forgetting.

Mayer-Schönberger thinks that all social software should be designed this way as we’d be more inclined to ask if something ought to live forever. Data storage is so cheap that if we’re not prompted to delete, we won’t. There is another benefit: we just might pay closer attention - in real time - to our experiences. If you decide that a sunset or a conversation should live on only in your mind instead of on your hard drive, then you will probably savour it all the more. Just ask Marcel Proust.

This is Why You Were Bored as a Teenager

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:20:10 -0800

newsweek:

From NurtureShock:

In his new book, Dr. Joe Allen has concluded that our urge to protect teenagers from real life – because we don’t think they’re ready yet – has tragically backfired. By insulating them from adult-like work, adult social relationships, and adult consequences, we have only delayed their development. We have made it harder for them to grow up. Maybe even made it impossible to grow up on time.
Basically, we long ago decided that teens ought to be in school, not in the labor force. Education was their future. But the structure of schools is endlessly repetitive. “From a Martian’s perspective, high schools look virtually the same as sixth grade,” said Allen. “There’s no recognition, in the structure of school, that these are very different people with different capabilities.” Strapped to desks for 13+ years, school becomes both incredibly monotonous, artificial, and cookie-cutter.

Are there asexuals among us? On the possibility of a "fourth" sexual orientation (Scientific American)

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:48:49 -0800

Are there asexuals among us? On the possibility of a "fourth" sexual orientation (Scientific American):

…According to Brock University psychologist Anthony Bogaert, there may be more genuine asexuals out there than we realize. In 2004 Bogaert analyzed survey data from more than 18,000 British residents and found that the number of people (185, or about 1 percent) in this population who described themselves as “never having a sexual attraction to anymore” was just slightly lower than those who identified as being attracted to the same sex (3 percent). Since this discovery, a handful of academic researchers have been trying to determine whether asexuality is a true biological phenomenon or, alternatively, a slippery social label that for various reasons some people may prefer to adopt and embrace.

Sexual desire may wax and wane over the life course or—as many people on antidepressants have experienced—become virtually nonexistent due to medications or disease. There are also chromosomal abnormalities, such as Turner’s syndrome, often associated with an absence of sexual desire. Traumatic events in childhood, such as sexual abuse, can also factor into an aversion to sex. But if it exists as a fourth orientation, true asexuality would be due neither to genetic anomaly or environmental assault; although little is known about its etiology (Bogaert believes it may be traced to prenatal alterations of the hypothalamus), by all appearances most asexual people are normal, healthy, hormonally balanced and sexually mature adults who, for still uncertain reasons, have always found sex to be one big, bland yawn. Asexuality would therefore be like other sexual orientations in the sense that it is not “acquired” or “situational,” but rather an essential part of one’s biological makeup. Just like a straight man or a lesbian can’t wake up one day and decide to become attracted to men, neither could a person—in principle, anyway—“become” asexual.

goldenmeg: “If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:42:38 -0800

goldenmeg:

“If uncertainty is unacceptable to you, it turns into fear. If it is perfectly acceptable, it turns into aliveness, alertness, and creativity.”

- Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

The Uncertainty Paradox: The Secret Key to OCD Treatment AND Confronting Doubt

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:39:16 -0800

The Uncertainty Paradox: The Secret Key to OCD Treatment AND Confronting Doubt :

If it remains a “secret” today, I’m convinced that’s only because far too many of us don’t want to accept its truth. Doing so means accepting that, when it comes to confronting the discomfort of our uncertainty, there are no shortcuts, no substitutes for the hard work involved in sitting with our fears. The reality is, philosophers and scholars have been touting this secret for millennia, and today’s brain imaging technology offers scientific evidence of its efficacy.

"After all, many of us entered this profession in the first place because of an interest in resolving..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:59:24 -0800

“After all, many of us entered this profession in the first place because of an interest in resolving our own issues along the path of helping others. I am embarrassed to admit that although I did and do feel a commitment toward altruism, a significant part of my motivation to become a therapist came from my needs to make sense of the world, to stave off my fear of mediocrity, to find acceptance, to satisfy my desire for control, to win approval and gratitude.”

- Jeffrey Kottler, On Being a Therapist

The Truth About Self-Deception (PsyBlog)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:17:50 -0800

The Truth About Self-Deception (PsyBlog):

Can we pull the wool over our own eyes or do we see through our mind games?

Nice Doctors Heal You Faster (Scientific American)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:14:18 -0800

Nice Doctors Heal You Faster (Scientific American):

It feels good when someone pays attention to our concerns and our feelings—and it turns out such empathy is good for our health, too. Researchers at the University Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health report in Family Medicine that patients of doctors who expressed such concern had a cold for one day fewer than patients whose physicians focused on just the facts. In randomized controlled trials the colds of patients assigned to empathetic doctors lasted an average of seven days; those with low empathy docs endured an extra day of cold misery. The doctors’ empathy also boosted the patients’ immune systems. There was a direct relation between a physician’s empathy level and his or her patient’s level of IL-8, a chemical that summons immune system cells to fight microbial bad guys.

When Madness is in the Wings, Connecting With a Troubled Stranger (New York Times)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:59:12 -0800

When Madness is in the Wings, Connecting With a Troubled Stranger (New York Times):

There are two kinds of madness: the kind that strikes suddenly, like a startled bird, and the kind that stalks silently for years, circling round and round until you are fully gathered in its dark wings. Mine was the latter.

All my life I have been afraid of losing my mind. I don’t know why — there is no legacy of mental illness in my family — but at a young age I decided that reality was a wild horse on which the best you could hope for was a tenuous grip…

…Describing psychosis is a bit like recounting a dream. There is very little one can say to capture its horror or its brilliance. There were many dimensions to my psychosis, the most prevalent being a severe strain of paranoia fueled by profound guilt and self-reproach. No longer was my world peopled by friends, colleagues, relatives or even strangers. Instead, all had become jurors or witnesses for the prosecution, and I was to be held to account for every real or imagined offense.

Kierkegaard on the Couch (New York Times)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:05:11 -0700

Kierkegaard on the Couch (New York Times):

These days, confide to someone that you are in despair and he or she will likely suggest that you seek out professional help for your depression. While despair used to be classified as one of the seven deadly sins, it has now been medicalized and folded into the concept of clinical depression. If Kierkegaard were on Facebook or could post a You Tube video, he would certainly complain that we, who have listened to Prozac, have become deaf to the ancient distinction between psychological and spiritual disorders, between depression and despair.

There is abundant chatter today about “being spiritual” but scarcely anyone believes that a person can be of troubled mind and healthy spirit. Nor can we fathom the idea that the happy wanderer, who is all smiles and has accomplished everything on his or her self-fulfillment list, is, in fact, a case of despair. But while Kierkegaard would have agreed that happiness and melancholy are mutually exclusive, he warns, “Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”

poetry as tonic, #9

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:02:27 -0700

Two Friends

I have something to tell you.

I’m listening.

I’m dying.

I’m sorry to hear.

I’m growing old.

It’s terrible.

It is, I thought you should know.

Of course and I’m sorry. Keep in touch.

I will and you too.

And let me know what’s new.

Certainly, though it can’t be much.

And stay well.

And you too.

And go slow.

And you too.

- David Ignatow

Psychotherapists Unmasked on the Internet (Psych Central)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:41:55 -0700

Psychotherapists Unmasked on the Internet (Psych Central):

As this short article illustrates, it certainly is a strange time to be a therapist, largely because of the internet and the ways in which that has changed everything - from advertising, to how people go about looking for help, to issues of privacy, transparency and confidentiality, to a whole host of other issues. Obviously, Freud and Jung didn’t keep blogs (though if they did, imagine how great a resource that would be for us today!) and there’s no real protocol for how to use the internet - or not use it - in one’s practice. It’s something the field, in general, is struggling to figure out ethically and otherwise, and something that definitely causes a rift between older therapists and younger ones a lot of the time.

Each of us has to work it out for ourselves, for now. Which is why I don’t reveal my full name or use an actual picture of myself anywhere on this site: that’s just how I decided I felt most comfortable running things here. Other psychology/therapy blogs are run differently, with more information - sometimes even direct contact information - available. Some therapists even keep Facebook pages.

Like I said, we’re all trying to figure it out. And with each new advance in social interactions/networks online, we have to re-evaluate where we stand, and why.

Okay, here’s the article:

Five years ago I was having lunch with my father, a psychiatrist of almost 45 years. He was curious to know how I was getting such a full client load being a new therapist. I explained my website was coming up high in search engine rankings for my area and that these days people search for most things online, including therapists. He cocked his head slightly and looked at me suspiciously.

“Do you put your picture on your website?” he asked.

When I told him that I did, he about fell out of his chair and went on a rant about how inappropriate this is, likening it to taking an ad out in the yellow pages of a phone book. Initially I felt deeply criticized and offended by what my father had said. But upon further reflection, I “got it.”

My dad comes from a very different time in the practice of psychotherapy — when therapists didn’t advertise at all, let alone display a personal photo.

My, how the landscape has changed for therapists since then! Some of us have websites (with pictures, Dad), some of us list ourselves in directories (again, with pictures), some of us use social networking platforms and some of us are writing and blogging. A few of us have figured out ways to create a passive income to supplement our therapy practices.

What does all of this mean? It means that therapists are more visible than we’ve ever been in the history of this field of work. However, the change in landscape has not occurred without controversy around issues of personal disclosure, therapist-client boundaries and the “digital footprint” left online, which cannot easily be removed.

Being that this is the age of information (albeit “information overload” at times), people want to know a little about who might become their therapist. I’m not suggesting therapists lay out their life stories on their personal websites but strike a balance between demystifying themselves and remaining in their ethical comfort zone.

The other night when my dad was over for dinner, he sidled up to me and said, “Hey Lis, I’d like to ask you a few questions about how to do a website.” This time it was me who cocked my head slightly and looked at him suspiciously. He enthusiastically explained that he wants his own website to put all of his articles in one place.

For a moment I flashed back five years to that day we sat on the patio and he berated my online endeavors. This memory was quickly followed by a surge of validation knowing he must have decided what I’ve been doing all this time has some merit. (Isn’t it true how much we want validation from our parents?)

“But,” he clarified. “No picture of me.”

In that moment, two psychotherapy eras came together — well, sort of.

Psychotherapy better than light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:27:28 -0700

Psychotherapy better than light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder?:

Psychotherapy may be a better remedy for people with seasonal affective disorder than light therapy, a new study suggests.

Researchers in British Columbia estimate about two per cent of Canadians suffer from SAD, a form of depression that occurs during the darker, colder months.

Like many mental illnesses, SAD can be treated and managed by various methods, including light therapy, medication and cognitive behaviour therapy. Those with less severe cases can often find some relief through regular exercise and outdoor activity.

In the September issue of the journal Behavior Therapy, Kelly Rohan, a psychologist at the University of Vermont, and her colleagues compared the treatments in 69 people with SAD randomly assigned to receive light therapy, psychotherapy, both or nothing.

Six weeks after treatment started, 80 per cent of those receiving combination therapy were in remission, compared to 50 per cent for cognitive behaviour therapy and the same for light therapy. About 20 per cent of those in the control group experienced remission.

“This video is a demonstration of defense mechanisms and...

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:44:52 -0700

“This video is a demonstration of defense mechanisms and related broad concepts as defined by Freud. Further, the clip illustrates what a healthy therapeutic relationship may look like using a psychoanalytic framework.”

"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships."

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:44:48 -0700

““A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.””

- Helen Keller