Three Recommendations for Joe Biden's Gun Task Force
Earlier today, Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR) faxed this letter with recommendations for reducing violence to Joe Biden's office. The letter, which I helped draft, is also available...
View ArticleThe Upside of Nepotism
Fairness is our national creed. But fairness unfairly dominates our culture, and crowds out the virtues of favoritism. Contrary to the simple-minded equation of nepotism and corruption, I submit that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Children Read Mixed Messages From Parents
One of the major themes of this blog is my belief that, as much as we like to think of ourselves as independent-minded individuals, we are still very much tied into our families of origin – even if on...
View ArticleVeganThink
Steve Jobs lived more than 30 years after developing pancreatic cancer thanks to his vegan diet. That’s the preposterous claim made by Dr. John McDougall in a lecture that has been viewed by more than...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Leveraging Anticipatory Joy
Having to confront an indeterminate outcome that might be bad seems to cause more anxiety than having to confront an outcome known to be bad. In one study, patients requiring colostomies (a rerouting...
View ArticleEight Steps For Raising A Happy First-born
8 Steps for Raising a Happy Firstborn ChildBirth order has a powerful impact upon children's behavior, their emotions and their personality development. Freud said that birth order is the most...
View ArticleHow HBO's GIRLS Gets Friendship Right
TV is enamored with friends. But it usually doesn’t portray them accurately. For female friends in particular, we have the Lifetime movie laughter-through-tears romanticization of friendship, and, on...
View ArticleThe End of Management As We Have Known It?
Our recent economic problems going back to at least 2008 and some would argue, much further than that, have often been attributed to external events such as the market place, globalization or the rise...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Accepting Loneliness
There seems to be a strong stigma about loneliness. Many people will admit to being depressed before they'll talk about being lonely. They fear being judged as unlikeable, a loser, or weird so they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ubiquitous Answer
I have been guilty of uttering these three words. They sprung from my mouth (seeming automatically) when I didn’t know what else to say, when no other answer came to mind, or when I was too tired or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
6 Lessons Learned Transitioning to High School
I honestly had no idea what it was going to be like for my autistic son to transition to high school. Sure, we’d read the course selection book, attended parent meetings and scoured the school...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Year in the Life of You
I came back from Tuvalu and my gym was packed with dozens of people I had never seen before—an influx of New Year’s Resolutions.“How many of them will still be here in February?” I wondered.Whether...
View ArticleTo Hover or Hope – Tough Calls in a World of Risk
By today’s standards, social services should have taken most us baby boomers away from our parents.We were raised in a world of lawn darts, BB guns and second-hand smoke; without car seats, airbags or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stepping on a Sea Urchin
This past December, we visited my wife’s family in the Philippines. While there, we went to a tropical island called Boracay. Boracay is a popular tourist destination and offers all types of fun things...
View ArticleClik here to view.
De-stressing Teen Girl Angst
A few years ago, I was interviewing a Student Affairs officer at a highly selective East Coast school, and she expressed her grave concern about the number of stressed out girls on campus. “More and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mary Kennedy and the Tragedy of Borderline Personality Disorder
The current issue of Newsweek Magazine (June 18, 2012) features a cover story on the tragic suicide of Mary Richardson Kennedy, estranged wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This disturbing story of a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What's in a Name: Titles, Labels, and Diagnoses
With the new year come new resolutions and new changes. Starting this year we will begin seeing many changes in how medical diseases are diagnosed. Beginning this month, significant changes are made to...
View ArticleThis is Your Brain on Fructose
All sweets are not alike.Sure, it's easy to fool your tongue. It thinks they're all the same.But ask the liver, the pancreas, and now the brain: sugars metabolize differently. In particular,...
View ArticleSo You Feel My Pain?
Medicine prides itself on its objectives: normalizing a high blood pressure, lowering a high blood sugar. Doctors take victory in achieving these objectives.Unfortunately, there has not been the same...
View ArticleClik here to view.