The Art of Helping
"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again." ~ Alexander PopeIs it, though? We're…
Psychology
The Art of Helping
"A little learning is a dang'rous thing;Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,And drinking largely sobers us again." ~ Alexander PopeIs it, though? We're…
No Going Back
Conflict, climate, and covid are showing us the worst of ourselves, but it might be what we need to find our collective humanity. Tiberius wrote: “The old world is no…
Covid Info for Therapists
Many people are seeking out therapists to help them with the mental health issues that are a result of Long Covid. Some of their experiences have been horrific. I’ve written…
Yalom’s Gift
I recently binge-watched all of Group, a show inspired by a novel by Irvin Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure. So I revisited Yalom’s non-fiction to see how closely the series aligns…
The Questionable Mindblind Theory of Autism
There was a cute social media post recently that asked kindergarten kids what gifts would be best for 30-year-olds. Of course there were lots of hearing aids and hip replacements…
The Global Fascist Coup: Time To Face Reality
We need to stop making the irrational and unfounded, anti-empirical assumption that the corporate and financial elite are stupid – they are demonstrably sociopathic, but they are not stupid, as…
Covid Defences Matching Game
Match statements from friends, family, colleagues, bosses, and/or random strangers with “opinions,” to defence mechanism! Dr. Mike Hoerger, a clinical health psychologist in the US, noted several psychological defence mechanisms…
On Hearing Others
Louis Cozolino’s beautifully written book on neuroscience has an explanation near the end about our necessary interconnectedness. Communication from one body part to anther happens when messages throughout our body…
Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, was originally published in 1995 but more recently updated in a 25th anniversary edition in 2020. Well, he added…
Faulty Wiring
We’re hard-wired for immediate survival, so we need reminders to help us persevere longterm. Short-Term Wiring For decades I taught a course, the Challenge of Change in Society, which used…
Breathe, Grieve, Love, Repeat
We have very little direct influence over one another but we do affect one another in myriad ways that we often don’t even notice. I had a student once, about…
Menakem’s Somatic Therapy Approach to Anti-Racism Work
Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands came highly recommended. The title refers to the effect that being enslaved had on his grandmother, and Menakem traces the violence of racism through the…
Pan-Variant Vaccines on the Horizon
Epidemiologist prof Raywat Deonandan said, “Whenever I encourage people to mask in crowded indoor settings, I get the same pushback: ‘Do we have to do this for the rest of…
Cultural Differences of ASD
I was once introduced to a new colleague who made very direct, sustained eye contact, and I thought to myself as I spoke with him: he’s on track to be…
Maté: Part Depth Psychology, but Part Questionable Quick Fix
He received the Order of Canada, profoundly helped many people with addiction on the streets of Vancouver, and is much loved and admired, but some of Dr. Gabor Maté’s claims…
On Training Children
I have some nuanced or maybe fence-sitting views about Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) that I’ll try to sort out below. As a trustee, I went to a PD session in…
Emperor’s New Clothes 2.0
Paul Krugman wrote about how someone like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becomes such “a crank”: “One sad but true fact of life is that most of the time conventional wisdom…
Could This Be You?
So, you’re at the grocery store on Saturday morning, in the check-out line, and perusing the gossipy mags and debating a chocolate bar, and the air you exhale is quietly…
Problems with Psychiatry
Paul Minot, MD, wrote a thread inviting other threads on the practice of psychiatry. Caveat, I have no idea of the credibility of any of these claims, but some make…