“The real message from this work is about the power of environment,” Yehuda said. “If negative environments cause one kind of change, what kind of changes are caused by positive environments? And how can we optimize our environment so we’re functioning in the best way possible and that we’re making the biologic changes that really are most optimal for us [...]
"The impact of early childhood trauma is that much more pronounced later in life precisely because there have never been words to describe or capture the traumatic experience. Usually, in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, one can begin to unravel the layers of the experience, slowly and often through speaking about the current symptoms that bother you or your body, which may include [...]
"...there are basically two categories of emotions. There are core emotions, like anger, joy and sadness, which when experienced viscerally lead to a sense of relief and clarity (even if they are initially unpleasant). And there are inhibitory emotions, like shame, guilt and anxiety, which serve to block you from experiencing core emotions."
"The more we probe the brain’s workings, the more we realise that our conscious minds are really just a summary of what our brains get up to all the time – without “us” having any idea. As Eagleman puts it, “The conscious you, which is the part that flickers to life when you wake up in the morning, is the [...]
"Psychotherapy is as effective as medication for mild to moderate presentations of many different mental disorders. It takes longer to work, but its benefits last longer and there many fewer side effects and complications. Comparisons between different psychotherapies usually end in tie scores — suggesting that the quality of the therapeutic relationship and other common factors may be more important [...]
"Patients are being shunned in the mistaken belief they have biological defects. In fact the evidence shows that most have endured traumas."
Cheap and effective, CBT became the dominant form of therapy, consigning Freud to psychology’s dingy basement. But new studies have cast doubt on its supremacy – and shown dramatic results for psychoanalysis. Is it time to get back on the couch? An interesting read by Oliver Burkeman from The Guardian.
The cost of loneliness may be much greater than emotional discomfort. In this article from NPR, Angus Chen discusses the potentially lethal effects loneliness can have on our immune systems. In this way, understanding - and tending to - our loneliness becomes a crucial step in maintaining our good health.
"Emotional intelligence is still not completely understood, but what we do know is that emotions play a very critical role in the overall quality of our personal and professional lives, more critical even than our actual measure of brain intelligence. While tools and technology can help us to learn and master information, nothing can replace our ability to learn, manage, [...]
Existential therapist Matthew Bishop, in his blog, quotes philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in reframing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as an adaptive (yet not necessarily pathological) variation on anxiety: “This is an adventure that every human being must go through – to learn to be anxious in order that he may not perish either by never having been in anxiety or by succumbing in [...]
