Recently in Psychology Category

I've been feeling well for a while now, quite good in fact. From a distance, things look so different..

Just came across a wonderful column by Dick Cavett on his personal journey with depression. Recommended reading - both insightful and witty.

Best quote:

[...] once at Oxford a languid Brit part-time professor (and full-time fop) was cooing to me at an academic cocktail party about what he called " this depression business."

"Depression," he announced, "is for sniveling little neurotics."

"How, then," I asked, "have you escaped it?"

I have no memory of what happened next.

The New York Times Magazine has an interesting article on the social effects of pervasive internet contact of the sort created by Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Millions of young people (in the affluent west, at least) have grown up in the last decade without ever knowing a world with no internet. Tools like Facebook enable them to remain in constant interaction with hundreds, or even thousands, of 'friends'.

It's changing the people relate to each other, as well as how they think of themselves. Social scientists call the phenomenon of incessant online contact 'ambient awareness'. And as people share more of their innermost thoughts and feelings online, traditional understandings of privacy take on new meanings or evaporate entirely.

Is this the dawn of a new age of global connectedness, or a foray into technology-fueled narcissism? Read the article and decide for yourself. 

British psychiatrists claim to have discovered three particularly (post)modern forms of 'culture-bound delusion' at the intersection of mental illness, culture and society. They have termed these psychoses 'Truman syndrome', 'internet delusion' and 'climate change delusion':

Psychosis in the 21st century looks something like this: You think your every move is being filmed for a reality television show starring you, and that everyone in your life is an actor.

Or you think you are under intense surveillance by an army of spies, whom you refer to as the "www people," as in the World Wide Web, and they wiretap your furniture and appliances. 

Or else you refuse to drink water because you fear that another cup drawn from your faucet will, once and for all, deplete the world's water supply.

Some psychiatrists say these delusions represent underlying mental disorders that have been influenced by the cultural landscape.

But the obvious counterpoint is this: most of us really are under constant surveillance by cameras wherever we go, and by our web browsers when we're at home, and climate change really is a silent apocalypse unfolding all around us. So how are fears about this anymore delusional than, say, exaggerated fears of spiders and clowns?

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), a delusion is a false belief not grounded in reality and held with absolute conviction despite all evidence to the contrary. Conversely, the so-called delusions described in the British report seem to be quite substantially grounded in reality, although undoubtedly exaggerated.

To ask the obvious: Why aren't the Bush administration, who've consistently denied the existence of widespread government surveillance and the reality of global climate change, considered clinically delusional, and the poor subjects of the British study considered at least somewhat sane?

Now that the RNC is over and the riot police have gone home, I guess I can at least stop wearing my tinfoil hat.

The last few months have been traumatic. In mid-June I found myself dragged inexorably downward into what can only be described as a major depressive episode. This time it was much worse than before, in both intensity and duration and in the impact on those closest to me.

One thing was clear - my previous cynical view of depression needed some adjustment. Things became so bad that I couldn't get out of bed, and for several weeks I experienced recurring suicidal impulses. On doctor's orders I was forced to take leave from work through the end of July. I can't find adequate language to describe what it was like to be in this valley of total despair. It was just horrible.

I began combination drug treatment and weekly psychotherapy. Eventually I began to crawl back up out of the whole that had come to encompass my life. I am so grateful to my doctor, my therapist, my supervisor and colleagues for their support and understanding, but most of all to my life partner and inspiration, Aaron. Even though the drugs seemed to help this time and therapy was also a positive step, without Aaron I would not have found the strength to continue when things seemed like they could not get any better.

Life has begun to stabilize for me again lately. I've spent a lot of time reading and researching so I can better understand this disease. I am reevaluating many things that I previously took for granted, including my religious viewpoints.

I intend to begin posting again. Some of these posts may be about my experience with depression, but I will also continue to muse and vent on issues that concern me most. As always, I welcome your feedback.

It’s always tempting to characterize religious leaders like James Dobson and Pat Robertson as wingnuts, mere fruitcakes who aren’t meant to be taken seriously. To do so would not only be dangerous but would ignore the facts that (a) millions take their every word quite seriously and (b) they have a lot of influence in the corridors of power, much of it behind the scenes.

They don’t care if their opponents mock them. For them it is par for the course to be ridiculed repeatedly in the public square by ‘Godless liberals’. This is a sign of their supposed righteousness and the justice of their cause. And it removes the need to engage in serious dialogue with their opponents based on empirical evidence and established standards of truth telling.

In Religion Gone Bad, Soulforce founder Mel White makes a strong argument that powerful religious right leaders are not at all stupid. They know that a lot of what they say (about homosexuals, for instance) is utter crap and flies in the face of accepted truth. They keep on saying it regardless because their word makes it true for their countless followers. Telling lies in the name of Jesus galvanizes the troops and greases the fundraising coffers.

The latest such example is Dobson's shameless attack on Mary Cheney and Heather Po in the December 18 issue of TIME Magazine. In an article entitled 'Two Mommies Is One Too Many', Dobson makes the blatantly false claim (which he must know to be a complete sham) that “the majority of more than 30 years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and father.” He goes on to say that same-sex parent families are “another untested and far-reaching social experiment”.

The social science evidence, far from corroborating Dobson’s views, completely disproves them. Years of research data have overwhelmingly demonstrated that the gender of parents has no bearing whatsoever on the developmental wellbeing of children.

Soulforce is mounting a petition drive to ask TIME Magazine to check Dobson’s facts on gay and lesbian parenthood. They quote Dr. Christopher Martell, President of the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues at the American Psychological Association (APA):

Over and again the data show that a loving and safe home environment is important, not the gender of the parents. The mainstream research is so clear on this matter that the American Psychological Association's resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children, which was adopted by the APA Council of Representatives in July, 2004, states: "the APA supports the protection of parent-child relationships through the legalization of joint adoptions and second parent adoptions of children being reared by same-sex couples."

The American Psychological Association, one of the world's largest mental health organizations, would not have supported the protection of legalized adoption by gay and lesbian parents if the data had suggested that children were at risk in such households.

TIME Magazine should require that contributors such as Dobson refrain from making misleading statements, or they should contextualize such statements by printing them alongside evidence from credible, peer reviewed research.

Sign the petition here.

I'm not entirely convinced, after all, that I'm 'suffering' from depression — as opposed to going through a rough patch emotionally and spiritually, that might be resolved through means other than pharmacological.

Let me state at the outset that the drugs were the worst experience of my life. First Wellbutrin, and then after a week of mental and physical torture from the side effects, the doctor switched me to Effexor — not as bad, but still a rough ride that I wasn't prepared to endure longer than three days. I've done a lot of drugs (both legal and illegal) in my lifetime, including some very bad acid trips. But nothing prepared me for the horrors of SSRI antidepressants.

What the doctors don't tell you when you start treatment on an SSRI, is that the side effects can be so wrenching that the experience can literally leave you feeling more depressed and helpless than when you started out. And even if you stop using the drugs, the side effects can continue for some time afterward. 10 days after stopping Effexor, I still have a constant ringing in the ears about which I'm starting to wonder whether it will ever go away... But at least it's better than the mania, nausea, vomiting, belching, anxiety, headaches and other 'side effects' I experienced while on Wellbutrin. Which was ironic, since the reason I visited my doctor in the first place was due to irritable bowel syndrome, the symptoms of which included nausea, vomiting, belching, anxiety, etc.

I did some research online and found some personal testimonies of lifelong addiction to antidepressants, and some terrible stories about drug treatments that read like experiments on lab rats. As I found myself, a physician will recommend one drug and if that doesn't work (or if the side effects are intolerable) keep trying different drugs, doses or combinations until 'something works'.

It seems that scientists don't really know how these toxic chemicals work to correct the assumed chemical imbalances. And with all the talk of chemical imbalance, you'd think it would be important to actually detect one before offering a diagnosis. But all that is required for a diagnosis is that you answer a short one-page psychological questionnaire in a certain way. Gosh, the patient is exhibiting depressed thoughts, so roll out the prescription pad!

This type of diagnosis seems more quackery than real science. Clearly the drug companies benefit in promoting the idea that 50 million Americans suffer from depression, and the corollary that drug treatment is the answer. 

Personally, I think a lot of people, including me, experience depression because we haven't been able to adjust our expectations too well to reality. A lot of men my age and older go through through 'mid-life crises'. Are these caused by chemical imbalances? Or is it just that modern life can often feel crushing, hurtful and seemingly pointless?

I'm not questioning the existence of real clinical depression in some people. But is it just possible that a good portion of those 50 million depressed Americans are suffering not from a chemical imbalance but from the challenge of living in a difficult and often spirtually bankrupt age?

Sometimes I feel hopelessly depressed because my life doesn't seem to be going where I had hoped, because I feel that I haven't grasped my vocation, that I've missed opportunities and squandered blessings. The despair comes from feeling not loved, or not loving enough, or not understood, or grieving over past hurts and failures. It feels more existential than physical.

Maybe the right pill would cure the symptoms, but would it address the spiritual malaise underneath or just push it further down where it can't disturb me? I want to deal with my demons, to face them and move through them, to learn from them and grow as a result. Maybe a pill will make my life easier, but in flattening out the ridges and valleys might it prevent me from learning and growing from life's challenges?

I'll pass on the chemical lobotomy for now I think. 

I haven't posted for a while. Work has been busy and I've been travelling a lot, so it's hard to stay up with the project of maintaining a blog.

Last week I visited my physician, complaining of a chronic and worsening stomach upset. I came away with a diagnosis of depression and a prescription for Wellbutrin. So the world turns...

It was not entirely a surprise to me, although I would have been the last one to admit the existence of a problem. I always behaved as if depression was an emotional and spiritual issue that others had to deal with. I never saw it (except perhaps in occasional moments of intense gloom) as something I would ever have to deal with.

In retrospect I don't know how I couldn't see it for what it is, especially since I've been exhibiting classical symptoms for some time. I guess we are all blindest to that which is nearest our own eyes.

I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercise; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire: why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.

- Hamlet 

So a new journey begins for me. Hopefully now that my depression is out in the open I'll be able to deal with the monster instead of keeping it bottled up inside. If you read this blog, please pray for my continued journey of healing.

Today I was browsing through the exhibits at the conference when I stumbled upon an interesting new product called Layered Voice Analysis (LVA).

LVA is software that analyzes 129 frequency parameters found in the human voice and provides an emotional/psychological profile of the speaker. It shows, for example, when a subject is being deceptive, excited or stressed.

To illustrate LVA's capabilities, the vendor had set up a large plasma screen showing the software running alongside a clip of Bill Clinton's now famous debate with Mike Wallace on Faux News.

As Clinton was speaking, the word "Truthful" continually flashed on the screen, punctuated occasionally by "High Levels of Stress". Who said telling the truth was easy? On several occasions when Wallace interjected or responded, the word "Inaccuracy" would flash on the screen.

I'm not making this up. I only watched a couple of minutes but found the demonstration fascinating. Now when can I buy a set-top box version to attach to my TV?

Of course, for watchers of Faux News, you wouldn't need to invest in this technology. Just place a sign on top of your set that says, "Lies, Damned Lies and Lying Liars" and you'll be set.

A few weeks ago an AOL researcher mistakenly posted three months of search results for 658,000 users to the internet. While the data was not linked directly to user account, the 36 million search records contained very revealing details about AOL members' search habits and private obsessions.

The search queries themselves did, however, contain personally identifying information such as names and addresses and even, in some cases, social security and credit card numbers. Copies of that data are all over the internet and there is even a searchable database.

The Washington Post reports that the researcher, his supervisor and a higher ranking executive have now been terminated over the affair. The whole issue highlights just how much information is being accumulated about us without our realizing it, and how increasingly transparent our lives have become. What a brave new world we live in. Somewhere in cyberspace is a record not only of who we are, what we earn, our credit history and purchasing habits, but also now our innermost private thoughts, fears and desires.

Consider, for instance, the life of a couple in Baytown, Texas as intimately revealed in their AOL search history for March through May:

She has missed her period and realizes she is pregnant. She is 37 and concerned about the risk of multiple births.

He apparently is diabetic and has bipolar disorder. He likes to keep violent dogs in the house. He is cruel to her and the dogs, probably because of alcohol, methamphetamine and cocaine abuse.

As a born-again Christian she believes fasting and intercessory prayer may help her to obtain healing for her spouse. But is fasting safe with an unborn child? She already worries that her partner's history of drug abuse has harmed the fetus.

She has ideas about becoming an actress. She is looking into opening her own business, perhaps a grocery store and gas station franchise. They are planning to buy a new set of living room furniture, preferably beige.

She needs to start thinking about maternity clothing. He's more interested in finding naked pictures of Beyonce and other 'fine black girls'...

This is somebody's life laid bare... Does she know he searches the internet for girls while she's praying for his healing? Will she get an abortion? Will she leave him or stay? Does she know her life is exposed, even if anonymously, for all to read on the internet?

The data leakage by AOL is not really the problem, only a symptom of a far more complex issue. It's hard to comprehend where this connected world of information is taking us. According to Technology Evangelist,

The privacy violation was extraordinary, but I think the leak may have a positive side effect by helping web searchers understand just how much information search engines know about them. This may also help people understand why it's a big deal when the government asks search engines to hand over search records.

As a security professional I'm aware of the increasing value of 'open source' intelligence gathering. I'm also aware of the incredible potential today's data universe provides for creating a totalitarian society where 'total information awareness' is not just a bureacratic buzzword, but a reality. Whether we care or not, we are being watched.

"The Church must denounce rebellion as of all evils the greatest ... I do not shrink from uttering my firm conviction that it would be a gain to the country were it vastly more superstitious, more bigoted, more gloomy, more fierce in its religion than at present it shows itself to be. ... Rationalism is the great evil of the day."

— John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864) 

"The vice of Bigotry has been so indiscriminately imputed to the religious, that they seem apt to forget that it is a real sin. To the millions of Europe, bigotry has been a confutation of all pious feelings. So unlovely has religion been made by it ... that now, as 2,000 years ago, men are lapsing into Atheism or Pantheism."

— Francis William Newman (the Cardinal's wiser brother), Phases of Faith (1854) 

Emory Study Lights Up the Political Brain

I noted previously the ambivalence around recent proposals to classify 'extreme bias' as an official psychiatric diagnosis. Now, results from a new study conducted at Emory University appear to indicate that biased thought engages totally different neurological processes from those engaged in normal reasoning.

Researchers conducted a study in the lead up to the 2004 presidential election, using partisan Democrats and Republicans as their subjects. Subjects were assigned reasoning tasks that required evaluating threatening information about both their preferred candidate and the opposing candidate. Functional neuroimaging (fMRI) scans were used to determine which parts of the brain were activated during the exercises.

From a behavioral perspective, subjects responded as predicted: partisans of either strip denied obvious contradictions for their own candidate that they had no difficulty detecting in the opposing candidate. No surprise there...

Slacktivist comments on the unfortunate tale of a promiment figure in the Southern Baptist Convention and senior pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church, Rev. Lonnie Latham, arrested last week outside a hotel for propositioning a plainclothes policeman for oral sex.

Rev. Latham's previous public disclosures concern gay sex were of the most anti- variety: he has opposed equal marriage rights for lesbians and gays and supported a denominational directive urging Southern Baptists to convert them to heterosexuality "by accepting Jesus Christ as their savior and reject[ing] their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."'

Slacktivist questions the commonly held theory that religious conservatives love to target gays and lesbians for condemnation because we're perceived as relatively safe and easy targets:

Condemning anything as a sin is a dangerous business. You get up on a soapbox and start railing against envy, sloth, gluttony, greed, wrath, lust or pride and eventually people will begin to realize that you're very well acquainted with your subject matter.

The only safe "sin" to preach against is one you can be sure you'll never commit -- never even be tempted to commit. So, if you're straight, you preach against homosexuality. You can further protect yourself by portraying it as the worst possible sin. That way when you get caught doing whatever it is you will inevitably get caught doing, you can argue that at least you're not as bad as those wretched homosexuals.

Adapted from a contribution to an ongoing discussion of religious fundamentalism on Talk to Action.

An epidemiology and prophylaxis

Why do certain forms of bigotry and ignorance seem to persist over millennia, adapting to different environmental conditions like viruses? Ideas and ideology can take on a life of their own, far divorced from the original context in which they were conceived. One only has to look at the recent development of protestant Christian fundamentalism in Africa to shake off any preconceived idea that this is a particularly American weakness.

The viral analogy may provide some useful pointers. More ‘benign’ viral infections can spread rapidly from host to host, because they do not immediately destroy the host. The virus must do its poisonous work without affecting the host in such a way as to prejudice its own chances of survival. It must also be able to adapt or mutate as it finds itself subject to in new environmental conditions.

If we extend this analogy to the various religious right movements, we see that some have functioned as deadly viral outbreaks but with little persistence over time. Heaven’s Gate is an example. Such experiments might be considered the Ebola or Marburg virus strains of religious extremism. The virus is deadly but since it destroys its host it is generally quickly contained and immobilized. Some aspects of the ex-gay movement seem to conform with this pattern as well.

I just couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I realized today I must be suffering from a treatable medical condition known as papaphobia.

Defined as "the pope", each year this surprisingly common phobia causes countless people needless distress ... At some point in your past, there was likely an event linking the Pope and emotional trauma ... Train your mind to feel completely different about the Pope, eliminating the fear so it never haunts you again.

How much for this balm of Gilead you ask?

Working one-on-one with one of our team, with guaranteed lifetime elimination of Papaphobia. From $1497 and up.

Always on the lookout for anything that might make life for my far-right friends more bearable, I came across this wonderful online advertisement. It begins with this teaser: "Imagine What Your Life Would Be Like Without Homophobia, Fear of Sameness, Fear of Monotony, Fear of Homosexuality, and Fear of Becoming Homosexual." Hmmm, tell me more.

Trusted, Effective Treatment for Homophobia

Our board-certified team specializes in helping individuals overcome fears, phobias & anxiety of all kinds, and is particularly focused on problems such as Homophobia. With a success rate close to 100% we offer a lifetime guarantee to our clients.

Wow, 100% success rate! Can I order gift sets trimmed with 'Merry Christmas' to send to some, er... friends, in Colorado Springs?

To add insult to an already distressing condition, most homophobia therapies take months or years and sometimes even require the patient to be exposed repeatedly to their fear. We believe that not only is this totally unnecessary, it will often make the condition worse. And it is particularly cruel as homophobia can be eliminated with the right methods and just 24 hours of commitment by the phobic individual.

The ad promises to "train your mind to feel completely different about sameness, monotony, homosexuality, or becoming homosexual, eliminating the fear so it never haunts you again." But more importantly, "homophobia will likely cost you tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime, let alone the cost to your health and quality of life. Now Homophobia can be gone for less than the price of a round-trip airline ticket."

They really want business: "We have never met a case of Homophobia that could not be overcome using these methods. So please, whether or not you decide to work with us, make a decision to get over Homophobia now."

The perfect Christmas present for the hard-to-shop-for homophobe in your life!