Stepcase Lifehack: What Makes Life Worth Living?

What Makes Life Worth Living? My partner is taking a class in psychology and one assignment asks her to write a paper answering the question “What makes life worth living?” For the past few days, she’s been asking the people around her – kids, friends, co-workers – what they think makes life worth living, and the answers have been pretty much of a sort: family, friends, work, music, some possession or other, faith, maybe health. Computer games. Although these answers aren’t necessarily trivial, they strike me as very unsatisfying answers to the question “What makes life wort living?” What about family, friends, work, etc. makes life worth living? Just having them? Then why aren’t most people – who generally have families, friends, and...

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Evolution of Self: Laziness: Fact or Fiction?

By Leon F. Seltzer, Ph.D.  in Evolution of the Self Addressing this topic generally, the immortal Dagwood Bumstead once claimed: “You can’t teach people to be lazy—either they have it, or they don’t.” So what is laziness anyway? Is it about being slow to do something (what we typically call procrastination)? . . . Or about doing something slowly? . . . Or about not doing it at all? . . . Or, finally, is it about not sufficiently wanting to do something? And if this last alternative is true, when we label someone lazy are we really talking about that person’s being indolent, sluggish, or slothful? Or is there something else going on that hasn’t yet been appreciated? What I'm going to be discussing here is my own, somewhat unorthodox...

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Alone by Maya Angelou

Alone Lying, thinking Last night How to find my soul a home Where water is not thirsty And bread loaf is not stone I came up with one thing And I don't believe I'm wrong That nobody, But nobody Can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone. There are some millionaires With money they can't use Their wives run round like banshees Their children sing the blues They've got expensive doctors To cure their hearts of stone. But nobody No, nobody Can make it out here alone. Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone. Now if you listen closely I'll tell you what I know Storm clouds are gathering The wind is gonna blow The race of man is suffering And I can hear the moan, 'Cause nobody, But nobody Can make it out here alone. Alone,...

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The Therapist Is In: From Pathological to Positive: A New Psychology for the Twenty First Century

By Mark Sichel, L.C.S.W. on July 30, 2008 in The Therapist Is In These days when people come to my office, I'm not interested solely in rooting out their painful personal and familial issues. Building on their strengths, positives, achievements moral, ethical, and spiritual beliefs, is much more helpful, I've found, in overcoming psychological and interpersonal problems. Vaclav Havel, playwright, dramatist, statesman, humanist and former President of the Czech Republic, beautifully and boldly encapsulates the lessons we should have learned from the ignominious twentieth century: Without a sober and conscionable approach to human events, affluence and technology has bred world wars, genocide, greed, and despair. This is especially tragic in...

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Bangkok Post: A Fighting Chance

Peace activist Ouyporn Khuankaew tells 'Outlook' why she's embraced Buddhist spirituality in her work to help victims of gender-based violenceSANITSUDA EKACHAIHow could a man who was a devout Buddhist, who regularly visited temples and was ever ready to give and help out the monks, treat his wife and children so violently?Peace activist Ouyporn Khuankaew, 45, was talking about her own father.At the mercy of her father's hot temper, young Ouyporn also often wondered why her kind neighbours who never said no to merit-making activities at temples never came to her rescue. Or why the abbot, who often visited the villagers when they were sick, never visited the wives and children who were beaten up by the man of the house.It was her painful efforts to answer these questions that drew her to feminism."I...

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Genius and Madness: The Mental "Illness" Metaphor Has Not Worked: What's Next?

By William Todd Schultz in Genius and Madness Several decades ago the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said it was time to start comparing mental “illnesses” to something different. That is, to move away from the “illness” metaphor. I could not agree more. Insisting on thinking of people with mental problems as “diseased” has been and still is a strategic and practical failure. It was at the start of the 20th century that medicine managed to wrest control of the treatment of the insane away from non-medical moral treaters, many of whom were Quakers. There then commenced what my friend the sociological historian Andy Scull has called an “orgy of experimentation” on the mad (see Scull’s wonderful book, Social Order/Mental Disorder, UC Press). Medicine had no clue what to do. ...

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Washington Business Journal: Specialist helps mentally ill pros get back to work

Washington Business Journal - by Jennifer Nycz-Conner Staff Reporter TomO’Conner, managing director of O’Conner Associates, saidthe American workplace has a “don’t ask, don’ttell” approach to workplace mental illness. Tom O’Connor, managingdirector of O’Connor Associates LLC in Potomac, specializes inpsychiatric disability management and helping professionals return towork after struggling with mental illness. He shares some thoughtsabout the issues facing human resources professionals when it comes tomanaging mental illness in the workplace.What is the most common question you hear regarding...

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Life As Art: Depression, Creativity, and a New Pair of Shoes

By Shelley H. Carson, Ph.D. on July 30, 2008 in Life as ArtAfter reading a newspaper article about some of the current research linking depressive disorders to creativity, an artist friend of mine commented, "Well, I guess now all I have to do is get depressed and my work will improve."Since the time of Aristotle, creativity in the arts has been linked to melancholia...but depression itself doesn't necessarily enhance creativity. Quite the opposite: most poets, artists, and composers have reported over the years that they are decidedly unable to work during episodes of severe depression. In fact, many have found their inability to create while depressed to be an impetus for ending it all. Virginia Woolf, for example, unable to write during the onset of a depressive episode, filled her pockets...

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Zen Habits: The No. 1 Lifehack You can Implement Today to Make the World a Better Place

from Zen Habits: Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mark Hayward of the MyTropicalEscape blog.In a word: Kindness.The Oxford Pocket Dictionary defines kindness as - the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.It’s a simple concept in theory, but in reality it is an action that can sometimes be difficult to implement on a day-to-day basis.Now I am not talking about the kindness that you might show to your spouse, family members, or friends; yes, of course that’s important.Likewise, if you are going into your preferred religious institution or social gathering place it is easy to be kind to your peers and those who are familiar…however, how do you (we, me, US) treat those who might be different?Specifically, I am talking about...

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Tehran Times : Children of mentally ill parents need support

The offspring of mentally ill parents are at a higher risk of becoming psychologically disturbed than their peers, according to mental health experts in Germany. In addition to genetic factors, the chance of developing a mental illness increases depending on the psycho-social stress a child is exposed to. These children are also likely to experience poverty, discrimination and lack of people to relate to, according to Christa Schaff of the Stuttgart-based Professional Association of Child and Teenager Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy. Schaff says it's important that affected children receive emotional and psychological support as soon as possible. The basis for that support is the effective treatment of their parents. It's also important that the illness is openly dealt with...

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globeandmail.com: Mental illness - past or present - is not a crime

ANDRE PICARDAugust 28, 2008 at 9:08 AM EDTIs having a bout of mental illness something that should result in a police record?Astoundingly, that is the reality in much of this country.It is an egregious breach of civil rights, yet the practice continues because people who suffer serious mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are all too often voiceless, powerless and victims of well-entrenched stereotypes.To understand this story, a little background is in order. In the post-9/11 era, police checks have become the norm in our society; it is a simple way of weeding out pedophiles and other "bad" people, or at least giving the illusion of doing so.If you apply for a job or a volunteer position - fundraising at the local hospital, coaching a peewee hockey team,...

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The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | A Certain Swirl by Mary Ruefle

A Certain Swirlby Mary Ruefle The classroom was dark, all the desks were empty,and the sentence on the board was frightened tofind itself alone. The sentence wanted someone toread it, the sentence thought it was a fine sentence, anoble, thorough sentence, perhaps a sentence ofsome importance, made of chalk dust, yes, but a sen-tence that contained within itself a certain swirl notunlike the nebulous heart of the unknown universe,but if no one read it, how could it be sure? Perhaps itwas a dull sentence and that was why everyone hadleft the room and turned out the lights. Night came,and the moon with it. The sentence sat on the boardand shone. It was beautiful to look at, but no oneread it."A Certain Swirl" by Mary Ruefle from The Most Of It.© Wave Books, 2007....

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Beautiful Minds: On Being in "The Friend Zone"

By Scott Barry Kaufman in Beautiful Minds "I think we should just be friends." Seven of the most horrifying words a women could ever utter to a man. How about this one: "Yes, I slept with Bobby and not you, but that's because I respect you!" Another 14 words that make men cringe. In fact, most men, upon hearing such a declaration, think to themselves: "Please, stop respecting me!" For many, both men and women (I don't want to get too tripped up on the focus on men here), being rejected sexually is the greatest insult, above being called a jerk, a loser, a "bad boy", or even a "bad friend". From an evolutionary perspective, this is not a surprise. Evolutionary Psychologists would be the first to point out that sexual intercourse gets...

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Enlightened Living: The Longest Distance in the World Is From the Head to the Heart

By Michael J. Formica in Enlightened LivingLao Tzu said that the first step on the path to wisdom is the ability to say, "I don't know." We like to believe that we know a great many things. We understand far fewer of those things, however, than we might like to admit. Knowing a thing and owning it - truly being invested in actions and outcomes - are two different things. True wisdom is, ultimately, not in the knowing, but in the doing.The longest distance in the world is from head to the heart. Taking what we know and turning it into a demonstrable action, something that will elicit change in our lives and the lives of those around us, is true wisdom. The ability to transform knowledge into action is oftentimes quite the hurdle.As long as we...

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The Urban Monk:The Key To Behavioural Mastery: Letting Go

The Urban Monk: In the months past, we’ve discussed how our attachments, our desires, are the root of much of our painful habits.But what do we do, then? What if the usual methods of handling ourbehaviours are making them worse? This article details some of theseerrors, and provides a long-term solution, the most useful I have comeacross: simply dropping the rubbish. This article builds heavily on ideas covered in the first two posts – [1] Part One, and [2] Part Two.Denial and SuppressionThe first thing to know is that we cannot deny our desires, pretendthey don’t exist, push them down. Repressed cravings, likeemotions, will simply resurface in the future with greater intensity,in a different form, or create psychological and physical symptoms....

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Comedy Central: Pop-Culture Philosophy! It's about time!

http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/root_of_all_evil/index.jh...

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Enlightened Living: Looking Beyond Our Problems and Looking Toward Our Solutions, Pt. 1

By Michael J. Formica in Enlightened LivingHold your hand in front of your face with your thumb folded. How many fingers do you see? Four, right? Maybe...maybe not.One of the mantras that we've often been hearing of late is "be part of the solution, not part of the problem." In business it is widely held that one should never walk into one's supervisor's office with a problem, but with a problem and a solution - even if it's not the right one. How do we do that?We often find ourselves stuck because we get hung up on the problem that we are confronting - hung up on what's in front of us. This limits our vision, limits our creativity and limits our possibilities. It limits us - more to the point, we limit us. If we can set aside our anxieties, we can see more clearly and thus broaden the possibilities...

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Predictably Irrational: Procrastination and Self Control

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In Practice: A Quick Note: It's Depression That Keeps People Off the Job

By Peter D. Kramer in In PracticeAs an addendum to my posting earlier this week on the harm that depressive symptoms cause for patients with bipolar disorder —Regarding the question of mood and days lost from work: Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have just published results from a 2-year-long overview of the employment status of outpatients with bipolar disorder. Depressive symptoms but not mania were significantly associated with time off work. Patients with substantial depressive symptoms missed about a day of work a week more than did patients in remission. That's an enormous difference, representing very substantial impairment. (Patients with manic symptoms missed work, too, but this finding did not meet statistical standards of significance.) The depressed patients...

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irishtimes.com - Mental illness linked to genes, says expert

CLAIRE O'CONNELLTue, Aug 26, 2008GENETIC STUDIES are helping to piece together the puzzle of how our genes contribute to mental illness, and are paving the way for more personalised and effective drug treatments. That's according to an expert who was in Cork yesterday to address a major international conference."There is a strong genetic component to most psychiatric disorders, with evidence coming from studies of twins and families," said Prof Peter McGuffin from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, who yesterday spoke about genes, behaviour and mental illness at a European Behavioural Pharmacology Society conference in University College Cork.Speaking to The Irish Timesin advance of his talk, he described the complexities of the interactions between genes and the environment...

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