Psychology Today
Psychology Today the power of no
There comes a moment when you say Don t call me,and you finally mean it; when you return the charming gift because you forced yourself to acknowledge its invisible strings; when you turn down the friend s request for a helping hand, the colleague s plea for immediate advice, even the teenage son s expectation that dinner will appear before him—all because you have goals of your own from which you refuse to be deflected. Whether trivial or tormenting, each of these moments is an exercise in that poorly understood power, namely, the power of No…
read morePsychology for life Today exam 4
Here’s how I try to make my annual physical exam as worthwhile as possible. All year Every time I have a question or concern that doesn’t require immediate attention and that I can’t more validly get from the internet, I write it in a word-processing file named “Doctor.” Usually, they’re questions that require a personalized response—for example, “Dr. Jones, in my case, do you think I should switch from a PPO to an HMO?” A month before I email my long-time and trusted physician, John T. Jones, requestin
read morePsychology Today I am a Sociopath
Many forensic psychologists, psychiatrists and criminologists use the terms sociopathy and psychopathy interchangeably. Leading experts disagree on whether there are meaningful differences between the two conditions. I contend that there are clear and significant distinctions between them. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), released by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013, lists both sociopathy and psychopathy under the heading of Antisocial Personality Disorders (ASPD)
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Researchers in Norway have published a psychological scale to measure Facebook addiction, the first of its kind worldwide . They wrote about their work in the April 2012 issue of the journal Psychological Reports . They hope that researchers will find the new psychometric tool useful in investigating problem behavior linked to Facebook use. However, an accompanying article suggests a more useful approach might be to measure addiction to social networking as an activity, rather than addiction to a specific product like Facebook
read morePsychology Today bath salts
A few weeks ago a story hit main stream media about a cannibal attack in Miami. On May 28, police shot a man who was found eating a homeless man alive, consuming approximately 75% of his face. What on earth would drive someone to such gruesome insanity? According to police the answer could be found in bath salts. No, I m not talking about your everyday bath luxury; this type of bath salts has nothing to do with bathing and everything to do with a highly addictive and deadly substance. And just who s consuming bath salts? Teens and young adults…
read morePsychology Today Find a Therapist
For years, I’ve asked therapist colleagues the following question: Imagine a loved one calls you from her home in a major American city to tell you that she keeps getting in her own way in life and has gone to see a therapist. What percentage of therapists do you think are minimally competent, such that you would feel that she’s in good hands? The answers hover around 5 percent (although trainees tend to be more generous). My friend Jonathan Shedler has also been asking therapists this question and getting similar results. We were going to write…
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