Reparative Therapy For Homosexuality: Is It Ethical? Should It Be Provided?
posted by Mark Dombeck, Ph.D. on Mar 9th 2010
"Over the last few days a wife and husband have been leaving comments on an older advice column that Dr. Schwartz responded to some years ago titled, I Think I am Gay and I Need Help to Convert to Heterosexual?. It occurred to me that the whole topic is worthy of an essay in of itself, rather than being limited to a set of footnotes to an older piece. So what I've done is to simply take the husband's comment and reprint it here, followed by my response, followed by some questions I hope that readers will respond to. This is a difficult issue I think, for reasons that I elaborate below - that incompatible worldviews are clashing and there is an unknown but limited amount of common ground to be shared here. But points of contact like this one hold out promise that at least different positions can be accurately understood and therefore not distorted by the other side(s). " More...

Neuroplasticity: The Good, Bad and How it Affects You
posted by Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. on Mar 9th 2010
"I just came from a wonderful conference in UCLA where psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science discussed the nature of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is simply the new-ish finding that our brain continues to grow connections throughout the lifespan. This has been very encouraging and provided people with a lot of hope because of the fact now that we can actually alter our brains for the better. And as with anything that becomes a trend or popular we can sometimes miss the whole picture. So what are we missing?" More...

Teachers, Students and Learning
posted by Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D. on Mar 8th 2010
"This past week the school board of one of the districts in New Hampshire fired its entire faculty because the schools have been under-performing for many years. President Obama applauded the school board for making and carrying out a courageous decision to improve the education of its children. All around the nation teachers, unions and others reacted angrily to what they considered to be an unfair action because among the teachers fired were those who performed on a very high level. " More...

Psychopathy And The Brain
posted by Simone Hoermann, Ph.D. on Mar 8th 2010
"Most people think of psychopaths as the character of Hannibal Lector in Silence Of The Lambs, or they think of someone like Jack The Ripper or Batman’s Joker - sadistic, violent, creepy, and quite a bit larger than life. In contrast, real-life psychopaths can be much more inconspicuous—charming, convincing, and seductive, they manage to influence and exploit others to get their way. This does not only include serial killers or mass murderers, or high-powered psychopaths that became politicians or high-level executives, but they include those “average” people that get pleasure out of exerting whatever power they can." More...

The Power Behind a Power Nap
posted by Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D. on Mar 6th 2010
"Are you one of those who believe that an afternoon nap is laziness or for old and sick people? That seems to be our American attitude towards sleep. We work all day without a break except, perhaps, a brief lunch period. Then, we go to our next job and, for some of us, that is followed by a third job. We just push down the tiredness and keep on going. We believe the old watch commercial, "We take a licking but keep on ticking." The trouble is that we do not keep on ticking. " More...