A psychologist's take on world events, life, happiness and the human condition
Get mentally healthy and happy, with news and practical tips from the fields of nutritional psychology, psychotherapy and personal development.
Sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted, in this section I help you to understand stress, anxiety, depression and other common wellbeing challenges, and what to do about them.
Studying health instead of disease. That was the motto of an informal but far reaching 2006 study into the devastating illness known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Myalgic Encephalopathy (ME). With the cause of the disease eluding scientists, this study sought instead to uncover how those who had successfully recovered from CFS had done so. Read more…
I’m not against self-help literature. I’m a shrink, so I’m all for it. There are a few fashionable self-help myths, though, that drive me up the wall because they are not only nonsensical, but it’s actually cruel to lead others to believe in them.
So I’m creating a series of Self-help Hooey posts that expose and put right some of this silliness. I hope to make you feel a whole heap better about yourself along the way, and equip you with much better strategies.
We’re going to start with these two doozies… Read more…
Settled into a comfy chair in a hotel room in the 1990s, at a time when online forums were new, I was counselling my troubled and pacing friend. He was very upset by some things that had been said about him online.
He was in the public eye just enough to garner gossipy interest from fans and hangers on. They chatted and gossiped as if he were out of earshot, with comments ranging from the flattering, to invasive and disrespectful, to exaggerations and outrageous falsehoods. Read more…
In Australia Psychologist is a protected term… Clinical Psychologists have specialised training for dealing with substantive mental illnesses…
Psychiatrists are first and foremost medical doctors…. Counsellor is not a protected term…
My last article about Donald Trump drew an interesting response from a reader. She was experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after a nasty romantic run-in with a narcissist, and subsequently witnessing Trump’s behaviour was triggering her symptoms…
I’ve often suspected that romantic catastrophes can produce the gamut of PTSD-like symptoms. I’ve seen it in my clients, and I’ve experienced it myself. Yet we don’t seem to talk about it in those terms. Why not? Read more…
If the US presidency were a regular job, Psychologists would draw up selection criteria and candidates would be screened for stability and competence.
How might the world look if more leaders were earnest public servants instead of unstable egoists and sociopaths?
Does this remind you of anyone? Superficially charming, even warm. Extreme intimidation of others. Manipulative and controlling. Bad tempered. Self-obsessed. Lacking remorse.
Then you may be working with a corporate psychopath. Contrary to popular understanding, psychopathology is not always about murderousness. It’s defined broadly as …
And there’s a surprising amount of it about. One woman in 200 is classifiable as a psychopath, as is one man in 80. Chances are, you have a psychopath in your building. Read more…