Mental Steroids for Overachievers?
The debate over AD/HD meds takes a new turnParadoxically, the "misuse" of them isn't all that different from the use for which these drugs are intended and legitimately prescribed--to sharpen mental... Read more
Over the Fence to Hollie and May's
A precious childhood role model of a loving and stable relationship[Hollie] and May and I never spoke openly about the nature of their relationship, even though it was the most stable and loving partnership I knew. That was... Read more
From the Editor: May/June 2006
Sometimes, we have a harder time settling back into the old groove. We may feel an indefinable sense of yearning or regret for something we can't quite name... Read more
Overlapping Realities
Robert Altman is the ultimate systemic filmmakerOne of his biographers, Patrick McGilligan, insists that "marijuana shaped [Robert Altman]'s storytelling. Read more
Phone Sex and the Rabbi
Discovering the normal in the deviantNaturally, I was concerned that [Isaac Kramer] was being exploited, and I often tried to bring him back to reality. I'd say: "Kramer, even if [Sherry] cares... Read more
The Marriage-Preservation Debate
Reexamining the research on divorceLebow reexamines the research on divorce and its aftereffects in response to the growing perception in some circles of a "divorce culture" run amok. There are... Read more
Riding the Waves of Grief
Practical tools for clients and therapistsKumar answers a question about how to deal with clients who have suffered devastating losses. The first thing a therapist must do is to reassure the client by... Read more
Getting Uncoupled
Anger Can Blind a Marriage Long After DivorceMarcia and Frank sat across from each other in the waiting room. She was a slight, fair-haired woman in her mid-forties who initially appeared rather meek... Read more
Me Neither
Brokeback Mountain challenges our most cherished gender stereotypesPittman reviews the controversial film Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, from a psychotherapist's point of view, discussing how it dissects the... Read more
From the Editor: March/April 2006
to influence a couple's decision. Quoting novelist Pat Conroy, [William Doherty] observes that divorce marks "the death of a small civilization," a... Read more
In His Footsteps
Lessons of acceptance from an older brotherCrenshaw discusses how the mental and neurological illness, punctuated by psychotic episodes, of his older brother Bob, taught him a lesson in humility. Bob... Read more
Tough-Minded Compassion
In good therapy, kindness is only the beginningThe book Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness By Marc Ian Barasch is reviewed. Read more
Depression: Have We Got It Wrong?
Questions about the serotonin hypothesisTwo new studies suggest that the conventional wisdom fostered by drug companies about what causes depression and how both the brain and the Prozac generation... Read more
From the Editor: January/February 2006
Much of the credit for this interest in self-transcendence goes to psychologist Martin Seligman, the de facto CEO of a Positive Psychology movement that's... Read more
The Verdict Is Clear
ESTs have an incontestable track record with anxietyTherapists know that the value of empirically supported therapies is a hotly debated subject these days. Critics repeatedly point out that, outside of therapy... Read more
Children in Crisis?
Concerns about the growing popularity of the bipolar diagnosisBipolar disorder was first flagged as a pediatric illness in the mid-1990s, when researchers led by Joseph Biederman of Harvard and Barbara Geller of... Read more
Being There
The Dalai Lama Gets Buddhism and Neuroscience to Go Face to FaceIn Washington, D.C., this fall, the Dalai Lama brought together a distinguished group of contemplatives and world-class scientists to explore the links between... Read more
103 Group Activities and TIPS
Fill your therapeutic toolbox with innovative, experiential exercises to enhance any group! Judith Belmont, M.S., has gathered this collection of The... Read more
Only the Lonely
Self-absorption is a pitfall of too much time on the roadI wonder what the [Ingmar Bergman] of today would think of [Bill Murray]'s aging Don Juan, who plays for comic effect the loneliness that's so obsessed... Read more
Older and Wiser?
A neuroscientist shares his findings about agingNow a new book called The Wisdom Paradox by neuroscientist Elkhonon Goldberg has come along, pushing neither supplements nor cognitive tricks, but filled with... Read more
Converting Calls into Clients
How to make the most of first contact[Beth], the second of our callers, knows nothing about your background. The most effective way to handle a call from a nonspecific referral source is to narrow... Read more
Sexual Heroin
Variant arousal patterns are an obstacle to intimacyTake, for instance, Paula and Keith. They were in their early thirties and had been together for four years and married for nearly two when they came for their... Read more
Songs from the Black Chair
When shared mental anguish yields connectionAs my madness mounted, and my sheer, disbelieving outrage that I, of so much apparent promise and poise, could be mentally assaulted and overwhelmed by such... Read more
Heroic Melancholy?
Exposing our culture's infatuation with depressionViking Press. 353pp. ISBN: 0-670-03405-3 Read more
Alice in Neuroland
Can Machines Teach Us to Be More Human?As neuroscience was becoming the topic du jour of the therapy field, we sent Senior Editor Katy Butler to MIT on a mission. The result was, literally, a... Read more
The New 'Mixed' Marriage
Working with a couple when one partner is gayIn 2004, the outing of New Jersey Governor James McGreever brought widespread attention to the new "mixed marriage ." But the issues such couples struggle with... Read more