I’m not getting into any specific arguments about who thought or did what regarding Jordan Blake, George Floyd, or any of the other black and brown people we’ve seen mercilessly killed. I’m not going to explain away, justify or even say the name(s) of those who have enacted white supremacy by taking the law into […]
Thinking Through Diversity
I have been very involved in thinking about how the ideas of diversity help us build our shared society. I recently published this piece on CNN.com trying to pull together a way of conceptualizing how in our diversity we are together.
We Have To Talk About Violence
I asked the graduate students in my child psychopathology class about their reactions to the Boston Marathon bombings. Their surprise that I would ask confused me. Was I really the first to ask? It seems as though we haven’t found a way to have the tough, complicated discussions that might be the only thing we […]
Mental Health as a Management Strategy
I was pleased to see Elyn R. Sak’s article in the New York Times today. Her story opens a new dialogue about mental illness. Instead of cultivating “patient” status and transforming people into fractions of who they could otherwise be, treatment for serious mental illness should focus on the management of symptoms. In this way […]
Lets Honor the Angels We Lost by Coming Together
Everyone is trying to do all they can to respond to the Newtown tragedy. Far away in a busy city, this piece at CNN.com is what I could do. May this time of year bring warmth, love and comfort to all. And change.
Numbers Don’t Tell The Whole Story
Does being self-reliant mean a person can’t also have needs? Is the success of the wealthy also built upon the working and middle classes? Are those stricken by poverty affected by the more resourced classes? Some thoughts about this at the InAmerica blog at CNN.com.
Identity and Environments
When I spent time with my grandmother in McAdoo, PA, I found myself speaking with that inflected “yous” that meant “you.” As a student at Wesleyan University I was very open and even funny. I spent some time in the Philippines as a child, and still retain some native culture style naturalness. At home, I […]
Limits Sustain People and the Environment
Part Five of the series on convergence of environmental and mental health (see part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here ). image from www.20somethingfinance.com President Obama is correctly observing that budgetary health depends on incisive and strategic limit setting.The same is true for ecological and psychological health. Most people tend to over correct for problems assuming that […]
The Arts, Sustainability and Mental Health
Part four of the series on convergence of environmental and mental health (see part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here ). When a person is troubled by symptoms and problems that cause pain to self and others psychotherapy is an invaluable curative process. Yet, the process of exploration should not be confined only to the therapist’s office. […]
Thoughts about Japan by Adrian Tait
I haven’t been able to organize my thinking around what is taking place in Japan. I received, however, a thoughtful post from a colleague, Adrian Tait (UKCP Registered Psychotherapist, Member: The Guild of Psychotherapists, Visiting Fellow: Centre for Psycho-Social Studies, University of the West of England) written to a newly forming alliance of clinicians looking […]