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The Danger & Attraction of Powerful Men
The reports about JD Salinger is a story as old as time.A brilliant artist, leader or thinker inspires us, yet privately takes advantage. Consider the story of King David, the greatest of all Biblical...
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Depression and the Dimensions of Complexity in Nature
Last week, the Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel reported in the NY Times on positive developments in the neuropsychiatry of depression, specifically citing the work of Dr. Helen Mayberg, who has increased...
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What Does It Mean to Be “Mostly Heterosexual”?
You have all probably heard of the famous Kinsey Scale measure of sexual orientation that ranges from zero (exclusively heterosexual) to six (exclusively gay). Kinsey and his research team classified...
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Five Ways Introverts Can Be Annoying
So listen...You know this whole “Introverts Rule!” thing that’s happening all over the Internet? (The Introvernet?) As much as I feel partly responsible for it—let’s take a breath. The message I’ve...
View ArticleLet’s Have Shots…and Discuss Relationship Problems?
I once had a student comment in class that “It’s not a real relationship until the two of you get drunk in the bar and one of you ends up in the corner crying.” Although many people would scoff at her...
View ArticleThe Scylla and Charybdis of Counseling After an Affair
Navigating the waters of marriage counseling after one partner has been unfaithful can be challenging. In my experience, the trickiest part is maintaining an attitude of what Carl Rogers called...
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Are You Drowning Out Minority Voices?
Healthy teams are diverse, dynamic groups who not only respect the different perspectives around the room, but they use them to get stuff done. Recent research out of MIT has shown that effective...
View ArticleThe Pain of Autism
The U.S. health care system is a miserable failure in many ways, particularly in our failure to make appropriate help available to those in great need. All too often, mass murderers are found to be...
View ArticleThe Epidemic
I want to call your attention to two recent research studies in hopes that they may shed some light on our current “obesity epidemic”.In the study “Does obesity associate with mortality among Hispanic...
View ArticleSo You Think You're Eating Mindfully
Mindfulness is gaining traction as a way to improve personal health and wellness, to treat addictions, eating disorders and other mental illnesses, and even to enhance communication and creativity in...
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Dialogue, Decision-Making, and Mattering
One of the cornerstones of our modern culture, the great reward that arose from being freed from earlier feudal times, is the idea of personal rights, the freedom to make decisions for ourselves. In...
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But Honey, I Thought We Were Only Socially Monogamous!
There's been an interesting reaction to my previous post, in which I express some frustration over Carl Zimmer's recent piece in the New York Times. A reader, Katherine Haines, has kindly forwarded me...
View ArticleShould You Give Your Kids an Allowance?
At some point in every parent’s life, there comes a time when it is impossible to avoid confronting the “A” word.That’s right. I’m talking about whether or not to give your child an...
View ArticleAfter the Flood: Will Social Support Recede With the Waters?
(Co-written with Lee Daniel Kravetz, writer and journalist)Adam Silverman, the managing editor of the Burlington Free Press, monitored the situation in Colorado this past week as 14 inches of rain...
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Write to Satisfy Your Own and Readers' Curiosity
I'm not sure why so many doctors, former doctors, and medical-field professors are drawn to writing, especially to the mystery form. Could it be that making up stuff for a change is creatively...
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The Dark Side of NLD: Addendum
Many people with Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) have a tendency to leave things out of lists and/or not look at the completed lists. I would dare say this is one of my biggest problems. When I was...
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Dissecting Empathy
The stereotype of a killer, especially a serial killer, is well known – a cold and remorseless man who usually plans and calculates his abductions and assaults, and has absolutely no empathy with his...
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More on Miley
What did you think about Hannah Montana twerking and straddling a wrecking ball while nude? As Miley sees it (in the Harper's Bazaar), "I was an adult when I was supposed to be a kid. So now I'm an...
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Schools Are Good for Showing Off, Not for Learning
Suppose you are a student in a high school or college course and a magic fairy offers you the following choice: (1) You will learn the material in the course well, but will get a low grade (a D). Or...
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"Eeeww, gross!"
As an adult we don’t eat feces or drink out of bedpans—even if we are told they are germ-free; we find the thought of those actions disgusting. The mere thought of eating fudge shaped as feces or...
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