An Introduction to Eating Disorders

• Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa
• Symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa
• Symptoms of Binge Eating
• Treatment of Eating Disorders
• Tips for Friends & Family
• Further Information 

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble." - Helen Keller

Social Anxiety Disorder

Depression Saps Endurance of the Brain's Reward Circuitry

The study challenges previous notions that individuals with depression show less brain activity in areas associated with positive emotion. Instead, the new data suggest similar initial levels of activity, but an inability to sustain them over time. The new work was reported online the week of Dec. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  Science Daily

Child Abuse Permanently Modifies Stress Genes in Brains of Suicide Victims

The trauma of child abuse can last a lifetime, leading to a higher risk of anxiety, depression and suicide further down the line. This link seems obvious, but a group of Canadian scientists have found that it has a genetic basis.

By studying the brains of suicide victims, Patrick McGowan from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, found that child abuse modifies a gene called NR3C1 that affects a person's ability to deal with stress. The changes it wrought were "epigenetic", meaning that the gene's DNA sequence wasn't altered but it's structure was modified to make it less active. These types of changes are very long-lasting, which strongly suggests that the trauma of child abuse could be permanently inscribed onto a person's genes.  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading.

Via: Not Exactly Rocket Science

Personality Theories

   Introduction
   Sigmund Freud
   Anna Freud
   Erik Erikson
   Carl Jung
   Otto Rank
   Alfred Adler
   Karen Horney
   Albert Ellis
   Erich Fromm
   B. F. Skinner
   Hans Eysenck and others
   Albert Bandura
   Gordon Allport
   George Kelly
   Snygg and Combs
   Abraham Maslow
   Carl Rogers
   Ludwig Binswanger
   Medard Boss
   Viktor Frankl
   Rollo May
   Jean Piaget
   Sociobiology
   Buddhist Psychology
   The Ultimate Theory of Personality
   Bibliography

This is an electronic textbook ("e-text") in Personality Theories. While it is copyrighted, you may download it or print it out without permission from the author, as long as the material is used only for personal or educational purposes, and the source is indicated.

Via:  Dr. C. George Boeree

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. Socrates

Stress-less Ideas Hints and Tips

...“Tell your fear to someone else and make sure to be as dramatic as possible, with very descriptive words and emotions. Then, when you’ve told every detail you can think of, start over again. Tell the entire, dramatic story, again with very elaborate descriptions (and gestures). By the third or fourth time, it becomes a bit silly.”  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  World of Psychology

Effective psychotherapy with depressed clients is associated with changes at the brain’s cellular level--Jakob Koch

Can therapy really change your brain?

There is increasing evidence to support the potential for true change within the brain via the therapeutic relationship. I’m no expert in neuroscience and relationships – but am excited about the notion that people’s brains can be rewired within their intimate relationships and within the therapist-client relationship. Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  Psych Central

Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life

I will take the audience on a tour of recent evolutionary thought, which suggests that our hyper vulnerable offspring rearranged our brains, genes, and social structures. I will detail new research on the vagus nerve and oxytocin, branches of the nervous system that have evolved to enable cooperation, trust, and caretaking. I detail new signaling systems -- tactile communication and vocalization -- which are critical to the transmission of prosociality across individuals. Throughout the talk I integrate the latest science with the wisdom found in Eastern thought.--Dr. Dacher Keltner



Via:  GoogleTechTalks

Rewriting Fearful Memories by Bringing Them Back to Mind

Bringing an old memory back to mind would, you might think, strengthen it. But not so - when memories are recalled, they enter a surprisingly vulnerable state, when they can be reshaped or even rewritten. It takes a while for the memory to become strengthened anew, through a process called reconsolidation. Memories aren't just written once, but every time we remember them.

This system allows us to rapidly update our memories with new information, for a more flexible and adaptable brain. It also means that the very act of remembering provides a valuable window of opportunity, during which memory can be manipulated. Click Anywhere in This Sentence to Continue Reading...

Via: Not Exactly Rocket Science

Conation: One of Three Parts of the Mind, Along with the Affective and Cognitive

...In short, the cognitive part of the brain measures intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative takes those thoughts and feelings to drive how you act on them.

Erich Fromm in his work on “Human Ethics” discussed the conative nature of man by saying the way man achieves virtue is through the active use he makes of his powers.

"Uncertainty (the cognitive) is the very condition to impel a man to unfold his power. If he faces the truth without panic, he will recognize that there is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by unfolding his powers, by living productively; and that only constant vigilance, activity and effort can keep us from failure in the one task that matters — the full development of our powers without the limitations set by the laws of our existence… “to be himself and for himself to achieve happiness by the full realization of those faculties which are peculiarly his — of reason, love and productive work.”

Fromm’s productive orientation was a fundamental attitude, a mode of relatedness in all realms of human experience. It covers mental, emotional and sensory responses to others, to oneself and to things. Productiveness is man’s ability to use his powers and to realize the potentialities inherent in him ... he must be free and not dependent on someone who controls his powers... he can make use of his powers only if he knows what they are, how to use them and what to use them for... they [must not be] masked and alienated from him.  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Via:  Wikipedia

Many Persons are Confused about the Difference Between Psychiatry and Psychology. The Following Discussion, Therefore, Offers an Objective, Concise, and Simply-Stated Description of the Difference.

Psychiatry

A psychiatrist has attended medical school and is a physician and therefore holds an M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree. In residency, he or she received specialized training in the field of psychiatry, in addition to all the rigorous training of medical school in general. And, just like other fields of medical practice such as internal medicine, psychiatry tends to focus mainly on the use of medications for treatment. Moreover, although psychiatric training may require some training in psychotherapy, psychiatrists are not required to complete any personal psychotherapy. Nevertheless, many psychiatrists have, for personal reasons, pursued training in psychotherapy. Historically, this training has most often been in the area of psychoanalysis.

Psychology

A psychologist usually holds a doctoral degree (a Ph.D., which means Doctor of Philosophy; a Psy.D., which means Doctor of Psychology; or an Ed.D., which means Doctor of Education) from a university or professional school.  Generally Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading... 

Via:  guidetopsychology.com

Positive Emotion in the Midst of Stress? It’s Not Crazy it’s Adaptive...

UCSF social psychologist Judith Moskowitz examines how positive emotions can be marshaled as adaptive coping tools during stressful times. Moskowitz's research focuses on coping and emotion in the context of health related chronic stress.



Via: UCTV

The Greatest Things Ever Done on Earth Have Been Done Little by Little.- William Jennings Bryan

This video is a great example of the wonder and power of the inspired human spirit. Please take 6 minutes and be transformed...

A great accapella cover and tribute of the song, "Africa" by ToTo performed by a European choir called Perpetuum Jazzile...

Rumination Lullaby: Mind River is Self-Cleaning-By Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D. October 12, 2009

“You must realize that thoughts are temporary, changing appearances, and neither seize on them or hate them, just let them occur and cease of themselves.” Bankei

Mind is an information-processing system. As such, it is in the business of digestion – and, not unlike your stomach, sometimes it chokes up on spice of life…Say, something happened – and now it is eating you as you are trying to digest it. The informational tug-of-war is on. No crisis here: same ol’ evolutionary game of the survival of the best-informed.  Look: if you are alive and reading this, you’ve won this contest every time – you’ve eventually swallowed every information byte reality has served you.
Information-processing – like food-processing – is a metabolic process. It has its own pace and rate of...Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading. . .

Via:  Psych Central

Al Seckel, TED Happiness Series: Your Brain Is Badly Wired — Enjoy It!

Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. Robert M. Pirsig

A funny thing about codependency is that when you are so focused on another they become focused on themselves too.

When Our Emotional Issues Affect Our True Availability

Codependents are the ultimate example of a persecution complex. They always feel victimized, oppressed, and self-sacrificial. Although codependents may feel they give an inordinate amount of responsibility, obligation, and worry for another and mistakenly feel like they are giving, in reality they are actually taking. The only thing a codependent person wants to hear from his unappreciative (of course, this is usually in his imagination) spouse is the words "I feel so guilty about everything you do for me".  

A Reader Writes:

"Co-dependence is a term that has been widely used in the last 10 years to describe relationships without clear boundaries. The concept of co-dependence provides a useful framework for examining how we interact in relationships with others. Our culture portrays romantic love, in songs, television, and movies, as being a relationship in which the partners are inseparable, are nothing without each other, and one in which each partner derives her/his very sense of self from the other. While portrayed as the ideal, this is actually a description of a very unhealthy relationship".  Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading...

Feelings' sway over memory: New research suggests that emotions can strengthen and shape memory.

Where were you during the terrorist attacks of 9/11? For most, recalling this information is easier than remembering, for example, the details of Wednesday morning last week. This phenomenon--along with more than two decades of experimental evidence--has led many psychologists to posit that emotions can enhance memory and recall. Click anywhere in this sentence to continue reading >>>>>>>

Brain Development

UCSD Cognitive scientist Joan Stiles reveals the latest understandings about the intricate relationship between biology and external influences in the development of the brain.






Via:  UCTV