Enlightenment’s Evil Twin – PsychologyTomorrowMagazine. Exploring the Shadow Side of Meditation In 1974 Hans Burgschmidt was sixteen years old, living in the Canadian Prairies, working in a photography studio darkroom, elbow-deep in chemicals all day long. “Is this what life is about?” He asked a high school friend. “You need to meditate,” was the reply. Not long after, Hans attended a lecture at the local library, where a man in a suit spoke about the scientific benefits of relaxation. He pressed Play on the industrial-sized U-Matic video player and there was Maharishi Mahesh, the Indian yogi who initiated the Beatles into the mysteries of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and launched the meditation careers of thousands of Western devotees.
“An infinite ocean of peace and love and happiness awaits you,” said the radiant Maharishi, with his flowing hair and his garland of flowers. Hans was hooked. But somewhere along the line Hans became disenchanted. Thus began Hans’ long career as an itinerant spiritual seeker. Hans is not alone. Jeff Warren. 10 Ways You Can Tell Good Therapy From Bad. Stanley Siegel, LCSW – What Our Sexual Fantasies Say About Our Past - Psychology Tomorrow MagazinePsychology Tomorrow Magazine.
[Intelligent Lust Part Six | Part One: How Smarter Sex Can Change Your Life | Part Two: How Sex Heals: Embarking on the Journey of Intelligent Lust | Part Three: What Brings You To Orgasm? Part Four: What Gets Other People Sexually Excited? | Part Five: Decoding Sexual Chemistry] Step 3: The Meaning and Purpose of Desire tweet Not all sexual desires grow out of conflict, but for the vast majority of us, our sexual fantasies represent the story we tell ourselves to solve deeper issues and conflicts.
We need to understand and respect these stories if we are to make the best choices for our lives. Most of us have at some time wondered where our sexual fantasies come from and how they were formed – why we prefer certain kinds of sex; rough versus sensual, oral versus genital or why we get off on being dominant or submissive. Outside of biology nothing influences our sexuality more than our families. None of us leaves childhood without suffering from some unresolved conflicts or unmet needs.
The most important lesson from 83,000 brain scans: Daniel Amen at TEDxOrangeCoast. Scientists Unravel The Causes Of Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health problem with a complex of symptoms ranging from unorganized thinking or speech to hallucinations. The causes—it seems—are equally complex, with a combination of physical, psychological, environmental and genetic factors implicated. A group of researchers from Duke University decided to focus on just one of these genetic factors, and found that it was linked to three crucial changes in the brain.
The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, linked together three possible ideas for the cause of schizophrenia that were previously thought to be unrelated. This new insight into the molecular basis of schizophrenia offers hope for new treatments that are more targeted to the underlying causes of the disorder, rather than just treating the symptoms. The researchers decided to look at how one gene, Arp2/3, contributed to the formation of mental disorders. Surprisingly, the modified mice displayed schizophrenia-like behaviors. THE DARK SITE OF PSYCHIATRY. In this page you'll find links to articles and critical documents on biological-psychiatry. Biological-psychiatry's official theory describes psychological or personal problems as having a biological origin caused by genetic or chemical 'imbalances' to be corrected by drugs and other interventions like Electro-Convulsive Therapy [ECT] or insulin shock.
These widely used but controversial methods in official medicine have been for many years amply invalidated, showing clearly that they are absolutely unscientific, that they tend to alienate patient's rights, are unable to solve the problems presented, are dangerous for one's health, and are submissive to pharmaceutical companies. Techniques for Learning New Behaviors - Online Self-Help Book for Mental Health, Mental Illness. Learned behavior is perpetually shaped by these forces; intrinsic approach and avoidance motivations, the presence or absence of rewarding or punishing stimuli, and the making of associations between unconditioned (instinctually meaningful) stimuli and other things.
Any given animal’s behavior represents that animals best effort at navigating through these forces so as to maximize its access to rewards and minimize the punishments it has to endure. The process of learning never stops, but rather is always ongoing. As stimulus conditions change, so too will behavior. Understanding this process is key to successfully managing behavior change. Human behavior and most animal behavior is considerably more complex in nature than than simple associational learning (such as salivating at the sound of a bell) can account for.
When learning is new, it is often effortful. Practice Makes Perfect / Overlearning. One tracking site that can be used to create new habits/behaviors is HabitForge. 4 Truths About Children Showing Signs of “Multiple Personality Disorder” | Caregivers, Family & Friends. At what age did you (or someone you know) have an imaginary friend as a child?
Were you able to “see” this imaginary friend and hear his or her voice? At what age did this imaginary world begin and end? For many adults, a child’s imaginary friends and world are the epitome of a great imagination and early childhood experience. It’s a normalized part of childhood development. In fact, it’s a normal part of development throughout the lifespan. Most parents become greatly concerned if their child doesn’t have a fantasy world at some point during the early years. It is important to mention at the start of this article that multiple personality disorder is not a common diagnosis in children. For the purposes of keeping this subject simple and to the point, I will use the former term multiple personality disorder throughout this article. For many people, including mental health professionals, the idea of multiple personality disorder is not only complicated but hard to believe.
Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep. In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness. A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy. The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess. " Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests.
Dr. 5 Steps Toward Believing in Yourself. 10 Ways to Spot an 'Everyday' Sadist. 7 ways to practice emotional first aid. You put a bandage on a cut or take antibiotics to treat an infection, right? No questions asked. In fact, questions would be asked if you didn’t apply first aid when necessary. So why isn’t the same true of our mental health? We are expected to just “get over” psychological wounds — when as anyone who’s ever ruminated over rejection or agonized over a failure knows only too well, emotional injuries can be just as crippling as physical ones. We need to learn how to practice emotional first aid. Here are 7 ways to do so: Pay attention to emotional pain — recognize it when it happens and work to treat it before it feels all-encompassing. Yes, practicing emotional hygiene takes a little time and effort, but it will seriously elevate your entire quality of life. See Guy Winch’s TED Talk, Why we all need to practice emotional first aid.
The Ten Biggest Mistakes Psychiatrists Make. 1. Talk too much It’s not a conversation, and it’s not a debate. You are either treating their symptoms with medication, or guiding them to “treat” their own symptoms. Neither requires much talking. If the psychiatrist says more words than the patient, then the psychiatrist is the patient. Many psychiatrists talk because they feel powerless. The patient is in distress. And empathize, don’t sympathize. And enough with the tissues. I had a great mentor who taught me to begin the first session with the words, “Where would you like to begin?”
2. This is going to be controversial. I know psychiatrists are taught that careful, meticulous history taking is the cornerstone of good care. Every session should be about the patient, not about you. I’m not saying don’t get the information. Are you proud of your notes because they contain so much detailed patient information? 3. Or at least make it a secondary outcome. This may seem trivial. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 4. Blaming lawyers has almost become a sport. How Psychoanalysis Differs from Psychotherapy | Practical Psychoanalysis. The talking cure Psychotherapy is a rather generic term – social workers, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists can all call themselves therapists.
Psychoanalysis is an experience – you cannot call yourself a psychoanalyst without having done your own analysis. The same is not always true for psychotherapy – not all psychotherapists have gone through their own therapy. Before there was psychotherapy, however, there was psychoanalysis. Freud “invented” the psychoanalytic method, or the “talking cure,” together with his friend and mentor Breuer, a Viennese psychiatrist, who worked with female hysterics (an old-fashioned diagnostic term for what today is classified as conversion disorder). In his work with his patient Anna O., a pseudonym for Bertha Pappenheim, one of the first feminists, Breuer discovered that after she was able to speak about the origin of her symptoms, they disappeared.
The difference Second, the goals of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy are also different. Human-Body-Facts-2-copy.jpg (JPEG Image, 620 × 8050 pixels) - Scaled (12%) Scientists May Have Discovered The Real Cause Of Addiction. Addiction is currently defined as a chemical dependency caused entirely by the way the body reacts to a certain substance.
But Johann Hari, author of “Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs,” believes it is a vital element of one’s life that drives a person to addiction. He recalls seeing an anti-drug commercial in the 1980s featuring an old experiment in which a rat was placed in a cage with two water bottles. One bottle contained pure water while the other was laced with heroin or cocaine. The rat became addicted to the second bottle and drank until it died.
Vancouver Psychology Professor Bruce Alexander, however, didn’t think the rat kept drinking the drugged water solely because it wanted to. He hypothesized it drank the drugged water simply because it was in a cage and had nothing else to do. Professor Alexander would repeat the experiment but in a different environment he called Rat Park. The rats were presented two water bottles, just like the first experiment. This Image Can Break Your Brain. Defense Mechanisms. To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This. I Googled Dr. Aron’s questions; there are 36. We spent the next two hours passing my iPhone across the table, alternately posing each question. They began innocuously: “Would you like to be famous? In what way?” And “When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?” But they quickly became probing. In response to the prompt, “Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common,” he looked at me and said, “I think we’re both interested in each other.”
I grinned and gulped my beer as he listed two more commonalities I then promptly forgot. The questions reminded me of the infamous boiling frog experiment in which the frog doesn’t feel the water getting hotter until it’s too late. I liked learning about myself through my answers, but I liked learning things about him even more. I sat alone at our table, aware of my surroundings for the first time in an hour, and wondered if anyone had been listening to our conversation. Much of Dr. He hesitated and asked. “Here?” Telling Dream Characters They're In A Lucid Dream - How To Lucid. You’re in a lucid dream. You are aware of yourself, and you’re exploring the world around you. Taking in the sights and feeling the wind through your hair, when you notice a dream character. She’s the only person you can see in the scene, and you’re feeling a bit lonely/curious, so you approach her.
You start talking, and after a while you realize that although you’re lucid, she’s not. To her, this is real.. Right? Is This Real? That’s how it normally is in every dream you’re controlling, you’re aware of what’s happening, but are the dream characters? So what happens when you convince a dream character that they’re in a lucid dream. This is where we get into Deeper Lucid Dreaming From here on in, we’re talking about advanced stuff. It really is interesting the further down you go, and we’re going to talk about what happens when you not only become lucid yourself, but make another dream character become lucid. There’s a reason this is on the list of things to do in a dream. No, we didn’t. The Innovation of Loneliness. The Scientific Facts of Happiness You Never Knew. Everyone could use more happiness; we are never truly 100% happy with our lives. If you want to know the science of happiness and how to be more happy, this infographic does a great job of breaking it down for you.
The hippocampus is the area of the brain that is responsible for happiness and memories, so you really should know how to feed and nurture it to help boost your mood in down times. Can you guess what the top four happiest occupations are in the world? What about the two countries with the most optimistic people, or the two countries with the most satisfied people are? The answers, which can be found on the infographic, may surprise you. As you probably already know, the country you live in has a lot to do with how happy you are. Other things that can help include getting more exercising, sleeping more (if you’re not sleeping enough) and helping out in your community. How to Be Happy | Visual.ly Read full content. Understand the Difference Between Helping and Enabling | I Told You I Was Sick. It’s the middle of the night. Your phone rings. You know who it is before you pick up. Your friend is in crisis again. She’s had too much to drink and needs to talk.
When she’s finished, she looks at you with sparkling eyes and calls you her “angel” and says she “doesn’t know where she’d be without you.” It can be very easy to fall into the trap of thinking you’re being paid a high compliment here. When you don’t know the difference between helping and enabling (as I didn’t for many years), it’s easy to get taken advantage of, used up, and thrown away like yesterday’s trash. The worst thing about enabling? Just the opposite in fact; they will grow to resent you. The Creepy Meaning Behind “You’re My Angel” Statements I had a close friend for many years who would call me his “angel”. Unfortunately, he was someone I enabled for many years. Think about that for a minute. Do they imply you are more than human and therefore capable of giving without end? Take that into consideration.
Trust me. Assessment, Seducing and Mirroring | Dating a Sociopath. The Dance – Sociopath and Empath. Psychological Tests and Quizzes. Reason Behind Increasing Food Allergies Discovered. Schizophrenia Revealed To Be 8 Genetically Distinct Disorders. The Brain's Default Network - Buckner et al 2008.pdf. 5 Steps to Take Before Starting a New Relationship.
Dimensions of Body Language. The Psychology of Clutter - WSJ. Rethink Your Thoughts About Thinking. Spite Is Good. Spite Works. Image is Everything: The Secrets of Body Language. Why Are Things Creepy? Ironic? Spanked Children More Likely to Break the Law. Sleep Therapy Is Expected to Gain a Wider Role in Depression Treatment. Art, science and schizophrenia - All In The Mind. Researchers identify new type of boredom. Sleep's Effects On Your Immune System Revealed In New 'Body Clock' Study.
It's not the morphine, it's the size of the cage: Rat Park experiment upturns conventional wisdom about addiction - garry's subposthaven. Study links a gene variation to a darker view of life. Blog Archive » 6,100 Patients with Anxiety Report Which Treatments Work Best. Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) RSA Animate - The Secret Powers of Time. A Call for Caution in the Use of Antipsychotic Drugs. Try It Yourself. Automatically Assessing Personality from Speech. Personality Disorders. Does a brain chemical imbalance cause depression? Many find it hard to swallow. Does The Family Really Need Lipitor and Aspirin? | - ThePeoplesChemist.com | ThePeoplesChemist.com.
You Are Not "Chemically Imbalanced"! How to make a glow lantern. Want to Know If Someone Likes You? Consciousness. Scientific proof that ego is an illusion | New Age Thinkers. How to Turn Milk into Stone! Dr. Peter Breggin: Benzos and Other Sleep Medications: Deadly and Unnecessary. How to turn "water" into "marbles". The Analysis of mind, by Bertrand Russell. Brain Basics: Know Your Brain.