Description: If you have had an introductory psychology course you have likely learned something about phobias. Phobia’s are usually described as irrational fears. Learning theorists (John Watson foremost among them) argued that phobias are learned when a situation or object or animal is associated with a fear inducing stimulus such as an unexpected loud sound…. Read more »
Posts Categorized: Abnormal Psychology
A key to health, recovery, and combatting depression? Let the Sun Shine In!
Description: In Egypt, rates of clinical depression are highest in December and rates of mania are highest in June. Why might that be? ….“Sunlight on my shoulders makes me happy” to quote John Denver. A signature line in a kitschy song but is there some truth to it from a clinical perspective? What do you… Read more »
Are Student Anxiety Levels Skyrocketing? And if so why?
Description: Do you have feelings of anxiety especially associated with school, college or University? If you do you are not alone, and in fact, you may actually be in the majority of recent data is valid. Before reading the article linked below think a bit about why it might be that students these days are… Read more »
Primal Screams: Socio-historical Contexts of Psychological Theory and Therapy and Arthur Janov’s Obituary
Description: When I was in high school (back in the old days of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s) I had a good friend whose mother was a practitioner of Janov’s Primal Scream therapy. Part of the basement in their house was lined with mattresses and there were bins of stuffed animals, boxing gloves and… Read more »
Raise you thinking about brain function a level: Consider the hippocampus
Description: Typically when the specific areas of the brain are described and their role in general functioning discussed (at least at the introductory course level) we describe brain areas in what might be called “flat terms”. That’s is, we talk about the behaviours or body fictions that seem to be associated with that area of… Read more »
Refugee Distress and Mental Health: Trauma AND Other Factors
Description: Think about what sports of factors might be involved in how refugees cope with distress once they have arrived in a relatively safe place and are trying to get on with their lives. Certainly the potentially horrific stressful events they endured in their original homes and in their flight towards safety could be important… Read more »
Postpartum OCD: Beyond a “simple” hyper-vigilance of new parenthood
Description: You have likely heard that the baby-blues or post-partum depression is a very real issue and concern. This is true. Postpartum depression is very much a form of real depression that is triggered by the hormonal and circumstantial changes associated with giving birth. Recognizing its signs and symptoms and treating it as we would… Read more »
Treating Depression, What’s Best: Or Is That a Fair Question?
Description: Ok a pop-quiz! Name 5 treatment options for people diagnosed with clinical depression and then rank order them in terms of effectiveness. For a few extra points explain the mechanism by which your top three treatment actually effect symptoms of depression. Given the number of people who deal with depression and related issues each… Read more »
Cerebellum, Brain Timing and Schizophrenia?
Description: Quick pop-quiz! What does the cerebellum do? It is involved in producing smooth motor movement right (balance, equilibrium etc.)? Yes, right, but what else is it involved in? Well, how about schizophrenia? As our understanding of the neurological factors involved in psychological functions and dysfunctions expands we are increasingly realizing more clearly something neuroscientists… Read more »
Politics These Days: Tips from Clinicians Who Treat Psychotic People
Description: Decades ago, psychiatrists used the term Schizophrenogenic Mothers to describe the mothers of individuals with schizophrenia and to then go on to talk about how the patient’s mother’s emotional ambivalence and related paradoxical behavior contributed to and perhaps even cause their offspring’s schizophrenia. Reflecting gender biased and even misogynistic attitudes, such hypotheses could simply… Read more »
Books for Success!
