You might think that a government faced with a barbaric public stabbing of schoolchildren and an unprecedented night of rioting in its capital city would extend condolences to the victims, take a deep breath, and try to figure out how …
Counseling a Gaslit Nation
In 1944 the truly remarkable movie Gaslight, starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, was released to theaters to great success and acclaim. Its plot centers around a woman who is being manipulated by her husband to believe that she is …
Can Thanksgiving Traditions Survive a Four-Year Pause?
For decades, I enjoyed Thanksgiving. Each year, we traveled to my parents’ or one of my brothers’, or in-law’s, houses. Twelve to fifteen people sat around two, age-defined tables and ate a hearty, redolent, mid-afternoon meal of turkey, stuffing, homemade, …
Beware the Autism-Friendly City
On 6th November, Dublin launched its Autism-Friendly City plan in a bid to become the world’s most autism-friendly capital city.
‘It’s a really exciting day,’ Dublin’s Lord Mayor said. ‘I do hope where Dublin leads, the rest of the country …
Gaslight (1940) – Film, Literature and the New World Order
FROM 2013: In this edition of Film, Literature and the New World Order we welcome Thomas Sheridan, author of The Anvil of the Psyche, to discuss Gaslight, the 1940 British psychological thriller that introduced us to the concept of ‘gaslighting.’ …
Stop blaming parents for everything
By the time my husband and I had our second child five years ago, I had long been researching “parent-bashing”. I knew that while parenting matters, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as the hoards of “parenting experts” would have …
Does a near-death experience change you?
Two days before he died from cancer at the age of 39, my father was sitting in a hotel restaurant with my mother, in considerable discomfort. After a while, they noticed two very familiar people sitting at a table across …
A Doctor Cannot Give his Professional Opinion?
In scientific journals it is common practice that, whenever a doctor or scientist, instead of presenting the results of an experiment, puts forth a point of view, a counter to the argument is printed at a subsequent time. This back …
Interview 1831 – Back-to-School Adderall Shortage – #NewWorldNextWeek
This week on the New World Next Week: there’s a back-to-school adderall shortage in the US; a new generation discovers pink slime via TikTok; and a San Fran bakery’s decision to not serve police raises interesting questions about business owners’ …
Interview 1830 – Modeling Disobedience with James Corbett and Bruce de Torres
via Bruce de Torres: Here, deep into 2023, what are the worst things happening – the most dangerous and important things that we’re facing – and what’s the good news? Who are the people and organizations, besides you, who are …
The invisibility of autistic girls
“Let’s go to page seven,” says the psychologist.
I flick through the papers on my lap. There it is, at the bottom: “Autism, without accompanying intellectual impairment and without accompanying language impairment.” I read that I fulfil all seven diagnostic …
Interview 1820 – James Corbett on The Weaponization of Psychology
via ANTIJANTEPODDEN: Investigative journalist James Corbett has investigated how psychology is being weaponized to target dissidents. In this episode he explains the absurdity of the old diagnoses of anarchia, which was too much love for freedom, and drapetomania, which was …
The high priestess of celebrity therapists
Would you want to eavesdrop on an anonymous couple’s therapy session? Hear a woman talk to her husband about the revelation that he secretly fathered twins with a lesbian couple she had doubts about, just after he’d cheated on her …
Why CBT won’t set you free
One of the more entertaining parts of my training in Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy — an austerely philosophical style of CBT — was how tribal our course leader was about its merits. He got particularly exercised about psychoanalysts. If a prospective …
Is liberal society making us ill?
As rates of Covid-19 infection started to dwindle, there came signs of a much stranger pandemic: long Covid and its host of long-term complications. You might think that, since men and older people suffer the most complications from the virus, …