http://www.drpsyche.com Musings on Psychiatry, Psychology, and Psychotherapy Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:11:55 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mortality is a difficult thing to talk about. One would expect that something so commonplace as death would be better accepted, but that is not the way most humans, at least the people I know, handle the issue. For most of us, death is ignored as long as possible, and ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2008/08/11/death-and-life/ Sorry for the long delay since my last post.  I've been in an introspective cycle I guess..  At any rate I want to get the juices flowing again by following up on my last post regarding the book: Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar. Besides the need to balance present and future benefits ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2008/06/30/money-isnt-everything-happier-revisited/ Happiness is one of those core emotions that I think just can't be defined further.  You know it when you feel it, and that's it. Having said that, I agree with Tal Ben-Shahar Ph.D., that it really should be considered the "ultimate currency", and the final measure of success. Many may ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2008/03/02/happier/ Some of you may have seen the recent news that researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have been able to control the sexual orientation of fruit flies, by exposing them to a chemical. Specifically, they were able to induce homosexual behavior in previously heterosexual male fruit flies. ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2008/02/28/the-morality-of-sexual-orientation/ For most of us, the Holiday season is one of joyful anticipation. As children, we anticipate receiving presents with increasing excitement. As parents, we anticipate the happiness of our children. For those who are religious, there is the celebration of God's blessing. And for all ages it is a time ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/12/16/sad-in-a-joyous-season/ As a private practitioner, I am not infrequently put in the difficult position of having to turn away otherwise suitable prospective patients who cannot afford my services.  As someone who has at various points in his life been unable to afford healthcare, I empathize with their plight, and wish that ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/11/20/therapysafetynet/ The Shadow is a concept which is pretty much unknown in mainstream psychological thinking. This is a result I think of the general avoidance and suppression of Carl Jung's work which arose as a result of the split between Freud and he in the early days of psychoanalytic history. I ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/11/12/confronting-the-shadow/ It seems to me that as a society we have become confused about individual variance, either in behaviors or thinking, and pathology. In one example I'd like to discuss, a man in a hostel was found in his locked room by the cleaning staff, apparently masturbating with his bicycle. ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/11/08/variance-vs-criminality/ I recently attended a two day talk here in New York City, given by Eckart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, a best-selling self-help book, and a number of related books and tapes. For those who are not aware, Mr. Tolle's major thesis goes something like this: Most ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/10/31/the-power-of-now/ Dependency and independence represent one of the fundamental issues which we as psychotherapists and physicians must struggle.  There is a fundamental conflict between our dependence on our patients for our livelihoods, and our duty to encourage their independence and self-reliance, which I think is not acknowledged enough.  This issue can ... http://www.drpsyche.com/2007/10/11/dependency/