January 24th, 2021 The problem
In the months since the COVID-19 pandemic forced me to practice by video and phone, I’ve exchanged much more email with patients than I did before. Previously, I discouraged email from patients. For one thing, I knew it was an insecure channel, not “HIPAA-compliant.” It’s also somewhat less personal than a phone […]
July 19th, 2020
Back when traumatic experiments on animals weren’t ethically prohibited, human anxiety was modeled by subjecting lab animals to an irresolvable approach/avoidance dilemma. The oldest and best known example came from researchers in Ivan Pavlov’s laboratory. They classically conditioned dogs to associate food rewards with the sight of a circle, and also trained the same […]
June 24th, 2020
I’m increasingly asked by patients and potential patients when I plan to see people in the office again. I had been an exclusively “in person” psychiatrist and psychotherapist until mid-March of this year, when the pandemic forced even skeptics like me to convert completely to remote (“virtual”) treatment. Like many of my colleagues, over […]
May 25th, 2020
Features of Antisocial Masking Disorder include:
Violation of the physical or emotional rights of othersIrritability and aggressionLack of remorseConsistent irresponsibilityRecklessness
(Adapted from DSM 5 Antisocial Personality Disorder)
Whew, that was fun. Those guys are crazy.
But let’s be fair and make some distinctions. At one extreme are those who deny reality. A few […]
April 4th, 2020
It was 2013. Hi-tech entrepreneurs were excitedly “disrupting” industries, bringing goods and services closer to users. Uber replaced cabs, Kickstarter replaced investors, and telehealth companies offered convenient, at-home medical care over smartphone video. Why waste time going to an office or clinic, especially if you’re not feeling well? Why spend so much money? The […]
February 8th, 2020 Dopamine
Taking a break from technology is a fine idea, but we don’t need a pseudoscientific new name for it: dopamine fasting. Launched with viral Silicon Valley memes, online reports, and articles in the New York Times and elsewhere, dopamine fasting is now a thing. Basically, the idea is to temporarily deprive oneself of […]
September 18th, 2018 E pluribus unum strikes the pluribus lately as a threat, not a promise — more like assimilation by the Borg than a patriotic ideal. Instead of striving for the common good, we’ve split into factions, each defined largely by its enemy. Feminism fights patriarchy, Black Lives Matter fights police brutality, the 99% fight the 1%. […]
|
|