George Atwood is one of the co-founders (with Robert Stolorow and others) of the intersubjective systems theory model of post-Freudian, relational psychoanalysis. He is professor emeritus in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. He also is the author of The Abyss of Madness (2011), one of the best books I have ever read about working with … Read more
“A hermeneutic approach … sees interpretation emerging from the shared search for understanding. Unless jointly authored, it is really misinterpretation and misunderstanding. In other words, understandings are not conveyed from one mind into another but emerge from conversation and are thus felt as truthful.” ~ Donna Orange, The Suffering Stranger – The Divine Conspiracy, … Read more
The two articles below are complimentary in their description of the impact of childhood maltreatment (CM: abuse and/or neglect). The first is only available as an abstract (paywall, of course) and the second comes from Psych Central, a nice resource for lay readers in psychology. Together these articles show the impact of CM on the … Read more
The benefits are pretty amazing in my experience, but I also had unlimited access to the tank and could float in each session for as long as I wanted. For about a year and a half of my time in grad school back in the early 1990s, I floated on average about once a week, … Read more
Important breaking news from America’s finest news source, The Onion. Psychology Comes To Halt As Weary Researchers Say The Mind Cannot Possibly Study Itself ISSUE 50•30 • Jul 31, 2014 Psychologists caution that it is a grave folly to believe anything objective can be learned about the human mind given that the object of observation … Read more
Vince Horn speaks with neuroscientist David Vago in part one of this two-part Buddhist Geeks Podcast. Good stuff. BG 329: A Neuroscience of Enlightenment by David Vago Podcast: Download Episode Description: David Vago is a contemplative neuroscientist and Jake Davis is a philosopher and Buddhist practitioner. Together they have authored an article proposing the question … Read more
We tend to think of cults as exerting mind control over their members, a kind of psychological enslavement, and this is partially true. However, as Dr. Farber argues, the way to obtain control of the mind is through the senses – music, incense, chanting, drumming, dancing, touch. Mind control, as she shows below, can often … Read more
An excellent new article from Robert Sapolsky published at the always interesting Nautilus. Sapolsky offers some insights into the seemingly incomprehensible functioning of the teenage brain. Dude, Where’s My Frontal Cortex? There’s a method to the madness of the teenage brain. By Robert Sapolsky | Illustration by John Hendrix July 24, 2014 IN THE FOOTHILLS … Read more
The quest for happiness has become a nearly archetypal feature of Western culture, not to mention a nation such as Bhutan, where happiness is a department in the government’s social policy planning (Gross National Happiness Commission). New cross-cultural research published in the Journal of Happiness Studies suggests that humans actually have an aversion to happiness. … Read more
From the BBC Future blog, this is an interesting article on new efforts in neuroscience to read minds (sort of), or least to identify images received through sensory channels as well as those experienced in dreams. All of this part of the European Human Brain Project. This article looks at a little bit of the … Read more