A brief update this week as a) I’ve been rather busy and b) I’m writing and scheduling this shortly before I go offline for a few days. Kind of a no-Day-Job-no-cartooning-deadlines, offline-not-checking-email.. vacation.
So, down to business.
There have been new(ish) pieces of psych research doing the rounds and popping up over and over again. In the interests of Never Linking to the Daily Mail, I’ve sourced some other.. sources.
One that’s been “doing the rounds” so to speak is the article/research on how people use the internet, and depressed people in particular. But it’s not just the internet that is being examined. There’s another article popped up here on the impact of cellphone (ahem. mobile phone) usage on mental health, particularly for the young’uns.
The other piece of research that’s got a lot of press this week is the “Freud was right” stuff about how anxiety (and particularly phobias) might, after all, all be down to unconscious conflict. Who knew. And continuing the therapeutic theme, I really enjoyed this post (as always!) from shrink blogger Shirah Vollmer on the parallels between obsessions and attachments.
There are also some nice articles I’ve been ploughing through on the Psychotherapy Networker website (open access, hey BACP?) A favourite is The power of emotions in therapy, but there’s a ton of great stuff on there. Yes, therapy is good for us. This week we were told it’s because we like to talk about ourselves. But more than that, it seems that talking about ourselves actually does some crazy neuro-bio-feedback thing which is all rather awesome. In short, talking about yourself is good for you.
But not all therapy is good therapy. In fact it’s been a week of hoo-ha in the global press. First, some therapist in France has been prosecuted/found guilty/ fined for implanting false memories, next the Vatican (that bastion of pure thought and liberalism) has been accused of using some therapist to enblacken the name of someone they wanted to discredit. But it’s ok, because they regret it.
It’s a shame we can’t make them believe in the concept of hell.. oh wait..
Ah well, you’ve got to laugh. Which reminds me – check out this analysis of Siri (those of you with or without flashy new iPhones who know what that is!)
Other people getting in trouble this week include Jonah Lehrer who plagiarised.. himself. Yes that’s right, he made the mistake of having an opinion and expressing it more than once. Ok, ok, he used the same words.. the same paragraphs. But he’s a talking head to some extent these days, so surely it’s up to the publisher/press organisation of choice if they want to insist on new content for every commission. Meh.
Still, if I had to come up with that much content-in-the-spotlight, then I’d choke from time to time as well.
Talking of new content, the more attentive among you will have noticed guest posts now popping up every Wednesday on Therapy Tales. This is open to all from both therapist and client side and of course other webcomickers. This week’s steaming pile of awesome is from good friend and shrink blogger extraordinaire Martha Crawford LCSW.
That’s it, until sometime next week I wish you all a most therapeutic weekend.
~ WG.
Thanks for including my PsychCentral Siri on relationships article in your rounds!