Haitians are still in Hell. Understandably frustrated with the slowness of relief efforts to bring desperately needed food, water and medical care, some are turning to violence to vent their rage. Looting, so far minimal, is on the rise. Roving bands of young men with machetes are taking what they want: not money, TV's or jewelry, but basic survival supplies, candles, rum, and toothpaste they smear under their noses to cloak the omnipresent stench of death. The government is in complete shambles and silent. The still infernal situation is perilously approaching every man for himself. "It is ...
What are the psychological effects of massive disasters like the recent Haiti earthquake? The cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) that claimed as many as 100,000 victims? The 2004 Indonesian earthquake and tsunami in which more than 200,000 perished? Hurricane Katrina? For many of those who barely survive such events, cheating death, the symptoms of acute stress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder will likely be present, requiring some therapeutic intervention. What are the psychological, theological and philosophical issues victims of such tragedies struggle with? And what about the rest ...
In my previous post (Part One), I suggested that we live in two worlds: the inner world and the outer world. That we participate in two different but equally legitimate realities: subjective and objective reality. And that these integrally related realities constantly interface and influence each other. But just how does that happen? What is the relationship between inner, subjective reality and outer, objective reality? Can what happens in the inner world of subjectivity affect, for better or worse, concrete events in the outer world? These are profound and crucial questions for the practice ...
The Zen teacher Chuang Tzu dreamed he was a butterfly. When he woke, he wondered, "Am I a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I really a butterfly who now dreams about being a man?"
The fundamental question regarding the nature of reality is partly philosophical, partly spiritual, part psychological, and partly scientific in nature. But it is not merely academic. For how we perceive, understand, experience, interpret and respond to reality has concrete and practical repercussions in both our intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, for the practice of psychotherapy, as well as ...
Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists routinely interview and evaluate criminal defendants. Some are charged with minor non-violent crimes, and others with major violent crimes such as assault, armed robbery, rape, murder or attempted murder. On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to murder almost three-hundred people. He was the alleged would-be suicide bomber on Northwest Airlines flight 253. (See Part One.) What transforms someone from mild-mannered, studious, ambitious, amiable, spiritually-oriented mechanical engineer to a suspected cold-blooded, homicidal, suicide
Yesterday, Christmas Day, 2009, a twenty-three-year-old Nigerian with purported Al-Qaeda connections, apparently tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet carrying almost three-hundred-passengers-plus-crew as it prepared to land in Detroit, Michigan. Miraculously, as with the infamous "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid in 2001, the allegedly "sophisticated" device he attempted to detonate did not work as planned, and disaster was once again averted.
But authorities, who are officially calling it an act of terrorism, are concerned that this could be part of a concerted effort by other similarly armed ...
A Christmas Carol is probably my favorite holiday film, and there have been many versions made based on the 1843 Dickens novel. Indeed, there is a brand new movie (2009) starring Jim Carrey as Mr. Scrooge which I haven't yet seen. Just the other night I caught one with George C. Scott doing a fine acting job as Ebenezer Scrooge, but the earlier films are truly classic. Scrooge is reminiscent of something I've been writing about here recently in my own blog: Post-traumatic Embitterment Disorder.
Following traumatic losses as a boy (his mother died bringing him into the world) and
In Part Three of Why Myths Still Matter, we followed a thread which led us from the healing Labors of Hercules to another Greek hero, Theseus: his slaying of the Minotaur, and the psychospiritual symbolism of the labyrinth. But how about the meaning of the Minotaur itself? What might be the psychological signiificance of this terrifying mythical creature? And what does it--and Ariadne's life-saving thread that brings Theseus safely back out of the infernal labyrinth--say about the psychotherapy process?
Metaphorically speaking, we each must meet the Minotaur lurking in the shadowy
Despite the disappointing experiences with therapy recently reported by PT blogger Carla Cantor, psychotherapy has been shown to be effective in most cases. This is especially true when psychotherapy is combined with psychiatric medication for treating more severe and debilitating mental disorders. Having said this, I would remind readers that there is, for me, especially today, really no such thing as "therapy" per se: only differently trained clinicians with different personalities, skills and different degrees and kinds of education and experience, providing what they believe to be the
For his sixth labor (see my previous posts), Hercules was ordered to disperse a huge flock of extremely aggressive, large, predatory and territorial birds that had taken over a lake near the Greek town of Stymphalos. As with the cleaning of the Augean stables, this task took far more brains than brawn. Stumped at first, Hercules, with the inspiration of the goddess Athena, finally came up with a clever plan to scare the birds from a safe distance with a massive noisemaker, picking them off one-by-one with a slingshot as they instinctively took flight. Next, Hercules had to subdue and
For his sixth labor (see my previous posts), Hercules was ordered to disperse a huge flock of extremely aggressive, large, predatory and territorial birds that had taken over a lake near the Greek town of Stymphalos. As with the cleaning of the Augean stables, this task took far more brains than brawn. Stumped at first, Hercules, with the inspiration of the goddess Athena, finally came up with a clever plan to scare the birds from a safe distance with a massive noisemaker, picking them off one-by-one with a slingshot as they instinctively took flight. Next, Hercules had to subdue and
Yesterday, a thirty-nine-year-old, never-married, Army psychiatrist with expertise in disaster and preventive psychiatry allegedly gunned down thirteen men and women, wounding thirty-eight. The murderous incident took place at Fort Hood, a military base in Texas where soldiers were being prepared for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Though the suspected perpetrator, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had initially been reported killed by military police, we now know he was seriously wounded, is currently in a coma, but expected to survive. What could possibly possess an apparently polite, ...
Yesterday, a thirty-nine-year-old, never-married, Army psychiatrist with expertise in disaster and preventive psychiatry allegedly gunned down thirteen men and women, wounding thirty-eight. The murderous incident took place at Fort Hood, a military base in Texas where soldiers were being prepared for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Though the suspected perpetrator, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had initially been reported killed by military police, we now know he was seriously wounded, is currently in a coma, but expected to survive. What could possibly possess an apparently polite, ...
Conquering Rage, Pride and Procrastination
For his fifth and probably filthiest labor, Hercules had to clean out decades of dung from stables owned by King Augeas. This task was deliberately designed to psychologically defeat and humiliate Hercules. His prior labors up to that point were heroic, glorious, ultimately victorious battles against the Nemean lion and Lernaen Hydra, and the time-consuming stalking, hunting and capture of another two elusive creatures: a fleet and golden deer known as the Hind, and a gigantic, violently aggressive wild boar. Having incredulously seen Hercules ...
Conquering Rage, Pride and Procrastination
For his fifth and probably filthiest labor, Hercules had to clean out decades of dung from stables owned by King Augeas. This task was deliberately designed to psychologically defeat and humiliate Hercules. His prior labors up to that point were heroic, glorious, ultimately victorious battles against the Nemean lion and Lernaen Hydra, and the time-consuming stalking, hunting and capture of another two elusive creatures: a fleet and golden deer known as the Hind, and a gigantic, violently aggressive wild boar. Having incredulously seen Hercules ...
Part One: Rage, Evil and Redemption
Hercules (aka Herakles or Heracles) is perhaps the greatest of mythic Greek heroes. His courage, strength, skill and cunning are literally legendary, and were revered in ancient Greek culture. Hercules is honored and admired as someone who repeatedly fought against and conquered evil during his lifetime, a great demigod (fathered by Zeus himself) doing gloriously good deeds. But we tend to forget that, like Oedipus, in his youth, Hercules himself committed one of the most evil deeds imaginable: He slaughtered his own wife and children as they slept, ...
Part One: Rage, Evil and Redemption
Hercules (aka Herakles or Heracles) is perhaps the greatest of mythic Greek heroes. His courage, strength, skill and cunning are literally legendary, and were revered in ancient Greek culture. Hercules is honored and admired as someone who repeatedly fought against and conquered evil during his lifetime, a great demigod (fathered by Zeus himself) doing gloriously good deeds. But we tend to forget that, like Oedipus, in his youth, Hercules himself committed one of the most evil deeds imaginable: He slaughtered his own wife and children as they slept, ...
The recent surprise arrest in Switzerland of Oscar-winning film director and international fugitive Roman Polanski raises some fundamental questions regarding the relationship between creativity and evil. Does talent ever redeem bad behavior? Can creativity excuse evil deeds?
Polanski, now seventy-six, was convicted three decades ago of raping a thirteen-year-old female model he was photographing at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood Hills home. On the night before his sentencing hearing, he fled on a plane to France, his home country, and has resided there ever since. Had he ever set foot in the
The recent surprise arrest in Switzerland of Oscar-winning film director and international fugitive Roman Polanski raises some fundamental questions regarding the relationship between creativity and evil. Does talent ever redeem bad behavior? Can creativity excuse evil deeds?
Polanski, now seventy-six, was convicted three decades ago of raping a thirteen-year-old female model he was photographing at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood Hills home. On the night before his sentencing hearing, he fled on a plane to France, his home country, and has resided there ever since. Had he ever set foot in the
Cognitive scientist Dr. Art Markman's recent posting on the nature of anger and catharsis raises significant questions about how to best deal with anger--both in and out of psychotherapy. This is a subject another PT blogger, Dr. Steven Stosny, and I briefly debated here previously. (See postings here and here.)
First, let me say that there is a very good reason for the numerous metaphors we apply to the misunderstood phenomenon of anger: They describe quite accurately and phenomenologically the subjective and objective experience of anger as a highly volatile emotion that can, depending ...
