tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-118370092024-03-05T00:26:09.952-08:00Everyday Psychology<b>psychological research and psychology topics explained in everyday terms</b>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10722086211907849619noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-77363829831294323112021-07-23T14:52:00.001-07:002021-08-15T14:57:01.557-07:00What do psychologically healthy individuals actually look like?<br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-5c042b05-7fff-8cb1-312f-0c96a3b7f4af"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This article was originally published online by the London based Institute of Art & Ideas (IAI.tv) under the title: Everything you know about happiness is wrong, What does good mental health look like? (July 2021).</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 415px; overflow: hidden; width: 575px;"><img height="415" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3iogGXikFGWuK4OHr76FKVAQ1nNNGc6IXBIilzeEl8mVkuKnLCg63vOAieDwHCREnRUgIKU3cEdximayaVo8cUUQYobn0ZDdAens9QjnwgL9f_var5Zcl5svRih6-XXJofNi33E" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="575" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I was in graduate school in the late 1970’s, a short-lived, student-run newsletter published under the banner: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Freedom From Disabling Anxiety Press</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – a play on the common “Free Press” moniker. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were training to diagnose the human condition in terms of a nosology founded on a medical model that defined “mental health” as the absence of psychiatric illness. The term “mental health” refers to disorder, disease and infirmity, and not actual </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">health </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or well-being</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Positive psychological health is referenced in the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DSM</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) only by way of a code number for “no diagnosis.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As students of psychology (not psychiatry), we were also aware that “mental health” is a misnomer for another reason. Adaptive human functioning involves more than just thoughts and cognitions, our </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mental </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">life. To identify both the healthy and the troubled souls among us, it is more accurate to refer to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mental, emotional, behavioral, social</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bio-psychological </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">health.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The term </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">psychological health </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">includes all of the above, and it enables a discussion about what people who fall on the positive end of that axis actually look like.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the 1960’s, the idea that people should expect something more from life than just freedom from disabling anxiety gave rise to the Human Potential Movement – a popular counterculture face for a series of emerging existential, humanistic, Jungian, Gestalt and self-psychology theories. The academic-intellectual face for the movement was provided by psychologist Abraham Maslow, whose seminal text </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Toward a Psychology of Being</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was published in 1968, edited from lectures dating back to 1954.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At midcentury, there were two central currents in psychology. The Freudian-analytic enterprise, broadly defined, was focused on the dynamics of psychopathology. The Behaviorists were intent on explaining human motivation and action as analogous to a “black box” with stimulus inputs and response outputs. Maslow argued that a “Third Force” was coalescing around the idea that individual consciousness is essential to the human experience and that psychology must consider “both the depths and the heights of human nature.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the deterministic Freudian and behavioral models, personality is created from a combination of instinct (nature) and influence (nurture or reinforcement). Maslow accepted that people have a given “inner nature” that becomes shaped by experience, but he added that because life involves a continual series of choices, the self is largely “a creation of the person himself … a ‘real’ person is his own main determinant.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Maslow’s construction, the most important shaping of a healthy personality comes from the gratification or satisfaction of innate needs and impulses, among which he includes an instinctual drive for growth, individuation and ultimately, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">self-actualization</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In hierarchical fashion, a person must first meet their survival, safety and security needs, and the need for love, belongingness, self-esteem, dignity and self-respect, before reaching the higher stages of personal growth.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Individuals are said to look psychologically healthy when they are moving in the direction of self-actualization</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">either “being” or “becoming” an authentic self, with “unity of personality” and “full individuality.” In this formulation, the psychologically healthy individual is a moral person who is introspective, honest, creative, expressive, truth seeking and efficient at perceiving reality. Conversely, according to Maslow, “general-illness of the personality is seen as any falling short of growth or full humanness.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With Maslow’s endorsement, the Human Potential Movement was expected to herald the dawning of a new age in human relations, with universal “harmony and understanding,” therapy groups, hot tubs and yoga. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above conceptualization of psychological health did not, however, retain much currency into the 1970’s. The evolved, superordinary personalities imagined appeared to be detached from reality. Missing from the equation was the fact that in ordinary life, there is no freedom from fear and anxiety or any escape from stress. Anxiety is a consequence of sentience and stress is ubiquitous. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1977, existential psychologist Rollo May published his masterwork, the revised edition (from 1950) of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Meaning of Anxiety</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In May’s view, anxiety is a force that animates life, providing the tension and creative motivation necessary for survival and health. May viewed anxiety as “an expression of the capacity of the organism to react to threats,” including the existential threats of non-being or of living a meaningless existence. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Following from Kierkegaard’s “school of anxiety” concept, Rollo May said that by confronting and working through anxiety experiences, individuals become better prepared to “move ahead” with courage, “without being overwhelmed.” It is an act of “courage that consists not of the absence of fear and anxiety, but of the capacity to move ahead even though one is afraid.” In May’s formulation, personal growth and psychological health are forged from that struggle: “it will release the individual’s capacities and permit greater expansion in the development of his own powers, as well as enhancement of his relations with other human beings.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rollo May was just as much a humanist as Maslow in rejecting “the belief that mental health is living without anxiety.” He differed, however, with respect to the belief that positive health is produced through an ascending gratification of intrinsic needs and values. According to May, psychological health is achieved through the process of engaging life as a challenge. People look psychologically healthy when they persist in seeking meaning and purpose, despite the vicissitudes of life and despite the anxieties that are a byproduct of our consciousness. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the decade following the Human Potential Movement, it became apparent that if one engaged in experiences directed towards becoming healthy, relaxed, and one-with-one’s-own-self, that in itself would be an active and adaptive response to stress and anxiety. What also emerged at this time is the conviction that psychological health and medical health are intricately correlated. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1950, physician Hans Selye published his treatise </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stress </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– introducing the concept of “wear and tear on the body” caused by a depletion of “adaptation energy.” By 1968, it had been shown that people who are free from distress use less medical care of all types and cost less to insure. What this means is that positive psychological health can be measured in relation to somatic complaints and healthcare seeking behavior.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a series of insurance cost studies at the Rand Corporation, investigators developed inventories to measure both distress and well-being in normal populations. A factor analysis of their measures showed that psychometrically and for purposes of prediction, psychological health is represented by a balance between two positive and three negative emotional factors. The model is validated by its correlation with measures of general medical complaints and with healthcare utilization patterns. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the Rand questionnaires, an individual looks psychologically healthy when they can say that during the past month, the amount of time they have felt </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">happy </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the amount of time they have felt </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">calm and peaceful</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> exceeds the amount of time they have felt either </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nervous, downhearted and blue, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> “so down in the dumps that nothing can cheer them up.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In other words, from the measured health perspective, individuals experience positive psychological health when they feel mostly calm, peaceful and happy, and mostly free from worry, sadness and despair. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This measurement, however, does not provide any theory about how individuals achieve that state of wellness or how it is represented psychologically. In 1979, Aaron Antonovsky, an Israeli medical sociologist published </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Health, Stress and Coping, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the first of two efforts at a unified theory of well-being. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The starting point for Antonovsky was a health study that included concentration camp survivors. What puzzled Antonovsky was not that two thirds of them remained troubled years later, but that a full 29% had remained emotionally healthy. Antonovsky’s insight was that an understanding of health and resilience cannot be found by studying how people get sick. Instead, one must look at how people become healthy or how they create health, especially in the context of trauma and adversity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Antonovsky presented a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">salutogenic model </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– a model focused on the genesis of health creating, salutary experiences. His argument was that the most salient coping resource an individual can possess is a confident, enduring and dynamic outlook on life based on a tripartite </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sense of Coherence. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Antovosky’s model, an individual experiences coherence and looks psychologically healthy when they (1) have a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sense of comprehensibility </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– a feeling that life events are understandable and generally predictable; (2) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a sense of manageability </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– a feeling that things can be handled and are within control; and (3) a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sense of meaningfulness </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">– a feeling that life is a source of pleasure and satisfaction and that life has purpose and is worth living. According to Antonovsky, an individual who is confused and overwhelmed will retain the capacity to survive and to thrive if they maintain the belief that life has meaning and purpose.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The concept of positive psychological health, as opposed to the medical-mental health model, has remained a consistent thread in psychological practice and theorizing throughout my professional career. Humanistic therapies are still prevalent. Mind-body, new age healing practices still permeate the popular culture. Hot tubs and yoga have survived. Consistently, however, the topic of positive psychology garners less attention than it deserves. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps that is good. Perhaps in the same way that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,” the mass of psychologically healthy individuals may just lead lives of peaceful calm, happiness and satisfaction, purpose and meaning, and freedom from disabling anxiety.</span></p><br /><br /></span>
<hr />Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<hr />paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-15511508058453169192020-08-16T14:27:00.002-07:002023-04-13T10:11:40.750-07:00In the Midst of a Recession, You Should Expect to Feel Depression. <div><i>I originally published this article under a slightly different title in January 2009. The country was entering what would come to be called "the greatest recession since the Great Depression." The stock market had staged a rally on an exceedingly bad jobs report - the thinking was that the news was so bad, surely the government would take effective action and quickly. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Obama "stimulus package") would be signed the following month.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>I began the article with a story that was told by Ronald Reagan about a child who wakes up on Christmas to find a pile of manure: excited, the child begins digging, assuming their must be a pony in there somewhere.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><i>The story is about false optimism. My point at the time was that things were going to get worse before they get better and that people should expect to experience feelings of depression. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>A similar situation exists today in 2020 - people are facing an entirely uncertain future and there is a false sense of optimism afoot in the land. This time however, unrealistic expectations are being promoted in the context of political strife. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><i>The article was primarily addressed to individuals who had lost their job - people experiencing a life-challenging sense of loss. </i></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><hr /><div><br /></div>When the report came, showing that the economy had shed more than half a million jobs in November, the stock market staged a brief rally. The thinking was that with news this bad, surely the government would step in to help. It's like the story of the child who wakes up on Christmas to find a pile of manure: excited, the child begins digging, assuming their must be a pony in there somewhere.<br />
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It is not at all likely, however, that those who have been thrown out of work in recent months will be looking to find a silver lining. <br />
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There is an extensive literature on the connection between unemployment and psychological well-being, and the news is not good. In a recent report on work and health from the American Psychological Association, it was noted that: "the loss of work has been consistently linked to problems with self-esteem, relational conflicts, substance abuse, alcoholism and other more serious mental health concerns." In every respect, and not just financial, one's quality of life is at risk when unemployed.<br />
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The fact is that work is often essential for <a href="https://www.everydaypsychology.com/2008/07/what-is-psychological-health.html">psychological health</a>. It is the "playing field" for our dreams and aspirations, and an important source of pride and satisfaction. Work is where we find challenges and a sense of meaning, and the chance for self-determination and personal empowerment. It is not just a matter of survival and security. Work plays a complex role in our social lives. It is a link to the broader cultural fabric of life and a regular source of social support.<br />
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Clinical depression is a common and expected result of the experience of loss. Beyond the sense of loss, those who have been displaced from the economy can expect to experience shame, fear and uncertainty, and a whole series of stress factors related to survival and adaptation. Imagine what happens to your identity when you are no longer a breadwinner or when you suddenly become dependent on an unemployment check. Imagine the adjustments you might have to make in your lifestyle or your role in the family or your daily routine.<br />
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The effects will also be felt by those who remain on the job. Their future is no longer certain, and it is often observed that they can suffer "survivor's guilt." It is a whole new stress at work: "Am I next?" Time that was previously devoted to productivity and engagement will be spent worrying, wondering and watching.<br />
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Depression is a genuine and significant health concern. The current unemployment numbers are pointing towards a potential public health crisis.<br />
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So how should you respond if you have become one of the "walking wounded?"<br />
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First, if you are feeling depressed, don't worry about it. It is normal and expected. There is no reason to worry more about the fact that you are worried. You don't want to be depressed about the fact that you are depressed.<br />
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Watch for the signs. What you may notice is: you are feeling sad or empty most days; life no longer feels interesting or satisfying; you can't sleep or you can't eat, or you are eating too much; you are unusually restless or fatigued; you are feeling worthless or guilty; it is harder to think or to concentrate; or you seem to have unusual pain or physical discomfort. These are the symptoms of clinical depression.<br />
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If you are depressed, you might also notice that you are drinking more, fighting more often with your spouse, and more likely to be irritable and impatient with your kids.<br />
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If you have thoughts of death or suicide, that is the only sign necessary to know that you are depressed.<br />
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If you are depressed, don't hide from it. Don't pretend it's not happening to you. Talk to your friends, your family and the people you love. If you are a person of faith, talk to your faith leader.<br />
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You also want to stay active. Stick to a routine, exercise regularly and think about working as a volunteer. When you are out of work, a real good use of your time is to go back to school. Classes will keep you occupied, interested and motivated. Education is a good way to fill that hole that is starting to grow in the middle of your work history and to prepare yourself what comes next in your career.<br />
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Unemployment cannot readily be cured. Depression, however, can be cured. If it is becoming too much to handle, speak to your Doctor or find a therapist. Get help. Don't be ashamed. (<a href="http://psyris.com/mh/dep.html">Take the Psyris Depression Screening</a>.)<br />
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This recession is going to be deep. The rates of depression are going to rise. The research shows quite clearly that many who suffer emotionally will not fully recover, even when they return to work. We all need to understand that we are facing a pile of manure and that there is no pony to be found.<br />
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The task now is to survive, to hold on, and to reach for the future. The best way to do that is to take care of yourself, and to remain optimistic, confident, and filled with a sense of meaning and purpose, despite all indications that this is an uphill battle.<br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><hr />Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-51686696336477170212020-06-04T13:20:00.000-07:002020-06-04T13:22:15.931-07:00Why are we so fascinated with murder?<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Originally published May 24, 2011.</span></i><br />
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The public is endlessly fascinated with murder. When it’s on the news, we may recoil in shock and horror, but often and in other media, homicide is a source of entertainment. We wonder why people kill and we are intrigued by the ways in which the deed is accomplished.<br />
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In the real world, there is in fact a practical duty we share in understanding the means and the motivations for crime. Understanding is necessary for prediction, prevention and protection.<br />
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But the popular fascination with homicide goes far beyond the practical. The story lines are a staple of art and literature and a subject for both drama and comedy. The murder mystery is often most compelling when it abandons reality and is framed in fantasy.<br />
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The crime of murder is a most fundamental taboo and also, perhaps, a most fundamental human impulse. In the <i>Book of Genesis</i>, Adam and Eve's original sin is quickly followed by the original crime: Cain's slaying of his brother Abel. In <i>Exodus</i>, the law is handed down: “thou shall not kill.”<br />
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We all know that murder is a crime and that sometimes killing is justified. Self-defense is an example of justifiable homicide. In real life, every killing demands that we pay attention and decide: was this murder or was it something else? Under the law, homicide is not at all just a matter of black and white or absolute condemnation.<br />
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In every case, there is an assessment to be made about the enormity of evil involved. Was it a first or a second degree murder or was it some form of manslaughter? Was it the act of a “normal” person, or the act of someone criminal or someone deranged.<br />
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To answer that question, we usually look to the motive. Why did they do it? What would enable them to kill or drive them to the deed? How did they decide or did they even think about what they were doing? When it comes to murder, there are many reasons why.<br />
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When people kill for profit or excitement or to terrorize others, we know that it is simply evil. It’s more complicated when there are other motivations.<br />
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When the killing involves some some feeling or emotion we all share, we call it “a crime of passion.” And then we wonder, was it a common passion or an irrational one? Was it an impulse we all might experience? Was it an act that we might understand or somehow excuse? We all know what anger feels like and can imagine various degrees of rage. Anger is a normal passion, so we have to wonder if it might also be an excuse. The same applies to jealousy.<br />
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We are fascinated because we wonder: would I have felt the same way, had the same impulse and would I have done the same thing? Would I have felt justified? Would I have I have controlled myself? Was there nothing that could have stopped me or something that should have stopped him? Sometimes, there is a very fine line between "normal" human passion and evil intent, between a loss of control and a desire to let loose.<br />
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Some years ago, a woman named Ellie Nesler walked into a California foothills courthouse and shot to death the man who had sexually molested her son. It was in the national news and even on Oprah. People were debating: was it vigilante justice and cold-blooded revenge, or did she kill in “a heat of passion” that might have overwhelmed the sensibilities of any common man? The defense argued that she had been driven mad and was insane.<br />
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This happened in Gold Rush country where you can still find an awful lot of the Old West. The jury said she wasn’t crazy and convicted her of manslaughter. It was in fact a cold-blooded killing, but the jury understood her passion and her impulse. What Ellie said to me when I interviewed her was: “anybody in their right mind would have done the same thing.”<br />
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Our fascination is driven by all of the many complexities that are to be found in the motive for murder. Even when we are certain that the intent is simply evil, there are still all of the degrees and forms of evil to be examined.<br />
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People are also naturally intrigued by the infinite number of ways the crime can be committed.<br />
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The variables involved are almost infinite: Was the victim targeted or doomed by chance? Was it planned in advance or a sudden undertaking? Was the method crude and stupid or was it clever and sophisticated?<br />
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We are also fascinated by the investigation: Were the suspects many or was it someone acting alone? Were the clues subtle or obvious? Did the investigation require science or logic? Did the detectives rely on intuition or insight, acute powers of observation or just hard work? Was the perpetrator the usual, obvious suspect, or was it the person no one would ever suspect? When the investigation is over, we still have to ask: did they get the right guy?<br />
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In real life, we also tend to focus acutely on whether or not it could happen to us. I am certain that no one is going to kill me for my fortune, but I am not so certain about my safety when I read about a senseless shooting of an innocent bystander or a burglary gone wrong that left the homeowner dead. We pay attention because we want to know if we are safe.<br />
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In the end, I think the fascination with murder is natural because there are so many different ways to judge each crime. We wonder about the victim, about the perpetrator, and about the circumstances. We are intrigued by the motive and the method and how they got away or how they got caught. We wonder who would be capable of the crime and whether they are “normal” like us or hopefully quite different.<br />
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In the real world, we are fascinated because of the powerful emotions aroused when we consider the fate and fortune of the victim and the pain that remains for their survivors. In reality, it is the cold realities that draw and demand our attention. We actively seek the clues that tell us that we are safe, that it couldn’t happen to us.<br />
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Murder is fascinating whether it’s real or not. Every case creates a set of questions to ponder. In the real world, we need to be intrigued and aware to remain safe. We need to examine each case and judge for ourselves: was this a matter of primal instinct or some unnatural act? Was it a matter of evil intent, a result of human frailty or a justified response to threat or provocation?.<br />
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When it’s art, all of those questions make it what we call a “thriller” or a “mystery.” When the body is real, the “thrill” may be gone, but the questions and the fascination remain.<br />
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Copyright, paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-35663905168149244072019-09-01T09:00:00.001-07:002022-06-14T09:10:23.339-07:00Donald Trump, Insanity, and the Law of Subjective Moral Precepts<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;">
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<span class="s1">If Donald Trump decides to plead insanity in some future criminal proceeding, all the talk about him having a mental disorder is certain to come to an abrupt end. Everyone will say: “<i>he’s not crazy, he knew what he was doing … he can’t get off on that.</i>”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">For Trump, an insanity plea would <i>not</i> be an irrational defense strategy. The person third in line for Presidential succession, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said that <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nancy-pelosi-news-conference-trump-accept-election-help-foreign-governments-today-2019-06-13-live-stream/" target="_blank">in her opinion</a>, <b>the President “<i>does not know right from wrong.</i>” </b>She also expressed compassion regarding his condition: “<i>it's a very sad thing.</i>"</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>A criminal defendant can be found insane if as a result of mental disorder, they lacked the capacity to know the nature and quality of their act or if they lacked the capacity to distinguish right from wrong.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Some form of this two-pronged insanity test (“did you know what you were doing and did you know it was wrong?”) is the law in most all U.S. jurisdictions, and is known as the “M’Naughten rule.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">In 1843, Daniel M’Naughten shot and killed Edward Drummond, private secretary to British Prime Minister Robert Peel. At trial, it was said that M’Naughten labored under delusions of persecution, believing he was being tormented and threatened by Peel’s Tory Party. A jury found M’Naughten insane and the Court was compelled to explain the verdict - the Queen was not happy.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Since 1723, the Common Law insanity standard had rested on the case of Edward Arnold, where the Court noted that “it is not any kind of frantic humour” that renders a person insane, “it must be a man that is totally deprived of his understanding, and doth not know what he is doing, no more than an infant or a <i>Wild Beast.</i>”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">M’Naughten did not act like a “Wild Beast.” He was not deranged or delirious, and he was not consumed by manic agitation. He was a “madman” of a different sort.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Justice Tindall explained that a person must also be found insane if they were acting under the influence of a delusion “which if true” would serve to justify or excuse their behavior. In the context of their delusional system, the person does not know right from wrong, even if they are otherwise seemingly rational.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Pelosi said that Trump was as good as insane <a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/transcript-abc-news-george-stephanopoulos-exclusive-interview-president-63749144" target="_blank">after Trump told George Stephanopolous</a> that it is still OK for him to accept foreign help in his election efforts. Trump said he would welcome assistance from Norway and claimed that the FBI Director was “wrong” about the propriety and legality of such collaboration.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">I<b>f Trump ever does plead insanity - claiming he believed that everything he did was OK - a forensic examiner will have to determine whether he was delusional or just character disordered.</b> Did a psychotic thought disorder impair his capacity for moral reasoning or does he just happen to have his own set of moral standards that run contrary to those of society?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">If Trump has clinically impaired reality testing (i.e., psychosis), he could be found insane. If his actions are simply a manifestation of dissocial and antisocial beliefs (i.e., sick ideas and character pathology), he would be found sane.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In California, the case law that guides an expert’s opinion regarding this distinction is the precedent set in People v. Stress (1988), where the Court articulated what can be referred to as the “<i><b>Law of Subjective Moral Precepts</b></i>.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">In November 1985, Stanley Stress killed his wife, leaving “an ax embedded deep in her head.” His belief was that “drastic action” was necessary to gain attention and publicly expose a vast government conspiracy. Extensive psychiatric observation confirmed that Stanley was “a paranoid and psychotic man whose life was taken over by his delusional beliefs.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Stress knew that killing his wife was a crime. The trial judge instructed the jury that he therefore must also have known that it was morally wrong. The Appellate Court disagreed, saying that even though he knew his act was illegal, Stress believed it did not violate “s<i>ociety's generally accepted standards of moral obligation</i>.” Because he was delusional, Stress thought that people would agree that he did the right thing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The situation is different when a criminal, a narcissist or a sociopath claims that what they did was OK or justifiable, based on their "<i>own distorted standards</i>” or their “<i>prison-influenced standards</i>” of morality.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The insanity rule applies when a defendant with clinically impaired reasoning fails to understand society’s moral imperatives. The Stress Court said that insanity does not apply when the excuse is based instead on “<i>the subjective moral precepts of the accused</i>.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b>In clinical terms, those “subjective moral precepts” are the equivalent of antisocial attitudes, values and beliefs, the markers of character pathology and personality disorder.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="s1">On one occasion, a defendant pleading insanity told me that he killed a fellow inmate at new Folsom Prison because the guy called him a punk. He said that “<i>if someone calls you a punk and you don’t do something about it, then you are his punk … and the voices said I should do it.</i>” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">This killer was mentally disordered, but he was <i>also</i> antisocial. He believed that violence and aggression are acceptable methods for resolving various interpersonal difficulties in life. His beliefs were of precisely the same character as Donald Trump’s core belief about vengeance.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">In a speech, Trump <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-obsessed-with-revenge/" target="_blank">expressed</a> his dissocial conviction as follows:</span></div>
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<span class="s1">“If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible. You’ve got to get even. Get even. And the reason, the reason you do is … you have to do it, because if they do that to you, you have to leave a telltale sign that they just can’t take advantage of you.”</span></blockquote>
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<b><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">In other words, Trump’s moral creed is precisely aligned with that of a psychopathic killer who told me that you can’t just let someone get away with calling you a punk.</span><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> </span></b><span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1">And that is why Donald Trump will never be found insane.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The experts might say that he has made some quasi-delusional statements (e.g., “I am the chosen one”), but they are likely to conclude that such utterances are a sign of malignant grandiosity and not evidence of actual delusions of grandeur.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">But the experts will also note that Donald Trump operates on the basis of his own distorted antisocial standards - his own subjective moral precepts. Depending on which crime triggers a prosecution, an expert might observe that Trump thinks there is nothing wrong with using a charity for his own benefit, bribing a porn star to influence an election, sexually assaulting women, obstructing justice or accepting emoluments.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The question of psychosis versus psychopathy would also be triggered if Trump were ever to explain: “<i>I knew I could get away with it, so I thought there was nothing wrong with shooting that guy on 5th Avenue.</i>”</span></div>
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Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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</style>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-46395799161290320682019-05-01T09:37:00.000-07:002019-08-31T16:04:32.769-07:00Expert Opinion: Donald Trump Does Not Have a Mental DisorderNever before in history have so many commentators prefaced their remarks about a President by saying: “you’d have to ask a psychiatrist” or “I’m not a psychologist.” <br />
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I am a psychologist. During the course of a 40 year career, I practiced as a criminal forensic specialist, visiting clients in jails, prisons and asylums, and testifying as an expert witness. <br />
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<span class="s1">Having worked primarily in the context of active criminal proceedings, I look at diagnostic questions more critically than clinicians credentialed in academia. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President "My Sick Idea" Trump </td></tr>
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The most prominent voice in the Diagnose-Donald-Now Movement - aside from George Conway, derisively known as Mr. Kellyanne Conway - is that of Bandy X. Lee, respectfully known as a Yale psychiatrist. In 2017, she published essays from 27 assorted mental health experts under the title: “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="s1"></span></div>
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<span class="s1">In Dr. Lee’s book, a number of the experts bandy about words that are associated with different forms of mental illness, but it remains a discussion about character, personality type, temperament, judgment and behavior. Mr. Trump was excoriated on those grounds, but no diagnostic hypothesis emerged. More importantly, no distinct and unequivocal symptom of mental disorder was described.</span><br />
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<span class="s1">The observations offered by these experts involve “psychological character evidence,” which in some cases can be admitted in Court for a legal purpose - a diagnosis not necessarily required.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The bulk of my work involved competency and sanity cases, where a specific diagnostic question must be answered: is the relevant impairment the result of a psychiatric illness (a “disease, disorder or defect” under the law) or is it the result of something else?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The psycho-legal question to be answered is binary: mental disorder, yes or no?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">No one has suggested that the President displays symptoms of psychotic thought disorder such as loose associations or hallucinations. And despite living in a world of alternative facts, he is not obviously delusional. Narcissistic grandiosity is not the same as an actual “delusion of grandeur,” and besides, too many other people share his contrived beliefs.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">With respect to the President’s “high energy” presentation, his agitation is nothing like a case of major affective disorder or manic illness. Psychologist John Gartner (one of the 27 experts) cautioned against drawing that conclusion, noting that a “hypomanic temperament” is not the same as clinical hypomania.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Absent symptoms of a formal thought disorder or a major mood disturbance, the binary answer would be: No, Trump does not have a mental disorder.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">With respect to the President’s narcissism, a personality style is not a DSM personality disorder unless it causes clinical distress or dysfunction - no matter how malignant the character traits. In any case, a personality disorder is not a psychiatric illness. "Sick ideas" are not the same as "crazy thoughts."</span></div>
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<span class="s1">With respect to the President’s judgment, there seems to be no evidence that Trump’s IQ falls anywhere above the mean. He does not have a sophisticated vocabulary, or advanced comprehension and reasoning abilities. He has apparently not mastered any formal body of knowledge.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">The intellectual demands of the Presidency are such that if an unstudied person of average IQ tried to do the job, they would naturally end up looking like a moron. That has nothing to do with mental disorder. If an assertion is foolish, we should simply assume it was produced by a fool.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">My view is that a “serious inquiry about this man’s condition of mind” (George Conway’s words) should take into account the following considerations.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">1. The range of aberrant thought and repulsive behavior that can be explained by personality traits is vast. However, a character pathology is not a mental illness. A psychopath might have sick ideas and twisted motivations and still be judged perfectly sane.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">2. Narcissism and sociopathy (i.e., psychopathy) are two sides of the same coin. The psychopath cares nothing about others. The narcissist cares only about himself.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">3. No matter how brilliant the scam or how perfect the crime, psychopaths are typically rather dumb. Exploiting fear or desire in others requires only a limited skill set (mostly interpersonal), but brain power not so much. At the very least, most sociopaths seem to think they will never be caught and that others can always be blamed. They are generally not smart enough to know that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">For those who wonder about the President’s condition of mind, George Conway offered his lay opinion: “it’s nuts, it’s a disorder."<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">In the President’s defense, I would disagree with the second half of that statement.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
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Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-91620479328330539892018-02-01T15:44:00.004-08:002019-04-28T17:22:59.236-07:00Is Donald Trump a moron? 27 experts fail to answer the baseline question.<b>Book review</b> (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/ROBUGYKFAKG4G/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1250179459" target="_blank">originally p</a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/ROBUGYKFAKG4G/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1250179459" target="_blank">ublished at Amazon</a>):<br />
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It turns out that the 27 psychiatrists and other experts represented in this collection of essays did not produce any consensus opinion or “assessment” of Donald Trump’s mental health. Instead, they have shared individual perspectives, integrated primarily around the alarm, distress, disgust, angst, fear (and loathing) they all seem to feel in reaction to the President.<br />
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To the extent that a unified psychological profile emerges from these essays, the formulation is lacking any comment on the President’s intelligence - a foundational psychodiagnostic measurement. <b>From a clinical perspective, nothing about his behavior should be interpreted without first answering the baseline question: is Donald Trump a moron?</b> <br />
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<b>The experts here are silent on the intelligence question.</b> <br />
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Psychiatrist David M. Reiss identified “innate, baseline, intellectual/cognitive skills and ability” as one of five areas of concern regarding “the cognitive abilities of a POTUS.” He concluded, however, that no standards exist for measuring the I.Q. of a politician, and therefore, when it comes to this question, differentiating objective opinion “versus politically based propaganda is an insurmountable problem.”<br />
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<b>A concern about an appearance of bias did not stop the other essayists from outlining the now-familiar contours of Trump’s personality type and temperament.</b><br />
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The standard observation is that Trump presents with narcissism. In Part 1 (“The Trump Phenomenon”), the authors effectively discuss related personality theory and research, along with the traits, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors typical of this type of character pathology.<br />
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The text demonstrates that narcissism is an operative psychological construct, independent of the formal diagnostic (DSM-5.0) criteria. A character “disorder” is rooted in personality style. It is not a psychiatric “illness.”<br />
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Criminal forensic psychologists (such as myself) tend to view narcissism and sociopathy as two sides of the same coin. In his essay, psychologist Craig Malkin makes the point that pathological narcissism is derived from a sense of entitlement, a willingness to exploit others, and an impaired sense of empathy - which is what we often say about psychopaths. Psychologist John Gartner notes that in the classic analytic formulation, the narcissistic syndrome includes: antisocial behavior, paranoid traits, grandiosity, and sadism (i.e., aggressively domineering behavior punctuated by “joyful cruelty,” otherwise known as bullying).<br />
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<b>While a number of the authors bandied about words that are associated with different forms of mental “illness,” this remains primarily a discussion about character and personality type.</b> <br />
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With respect to whether Trump might display mood disorder, Gartner provides a note of caution about overdiagnosis. As he explains, a “hypomanic temperament” (i.e., high energy) is not the same as clinical hypomania and does not necessarily involve a bipolar diathesis. With respect to whether Trump displays any signs of thought disorder (i.e., actual psychosis or “craziness”), psychologist Michael Tansey presented “delusional disorder” as an explanation for why Trump believes so many things that are not true, despite the available evidence.<br />
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<b>The failure to provide a baseline intelligence estimate was particularly obvious in Tansey’s essay about delusions and psychosis. </b></div>
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Tansey cites a series of fact-challenged and nonsensical tweets about being wiretapped by Barack Obama as “the most jarring evidence” of Trump’s ostensible psychosis. Critics observed that it was foolish for the President to make such accusations without any proof. Tansey put two and two together and said that the tweets represented “paranoid delusions.”<br />
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The interpretation is quite different when I.Q. is factored into the equation. <b>If the tweets were foolish, why not simply conclude that they were produced by a fool?</b> This is a common question in trial competency evaluations: is a defendant exercising bad judgment because mental disorder has deprived them of reason, or are they just being stupid?<br />
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The best estimate of any random person’s IQ is the “measure of central tendency” - the norm or the average. To say that someone is above or below average requires additional observations or evidence. Other than his own testimony (e.g., “trust me, I’m like a smart person”), there seems to be no evidence that Trump’s IQ is any greater than the mean.<br />
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During the time he has consumed our attention, Trump has provided few, if any, examples of advanced vocabulary development. He has not demonstrated facility in the comprehension of complex social issues, and he has not performed any notable feats of good judgment relative to practical matters. There seems to be no evidence that he is adept at abstract reasoning, or that he is skilled in associational tasks such as the use of metaphor and analogy.<br />
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The public record is bereft of any samples of Trump’s written scholarship (aside from a character-limited stream of consciousness). There are no signs of his having any intellectual curiosity and there is no record of his having mastery over any particular body of knowledge. Rather than displaying intellectual discipline, we have seen that his mind is a place where reality is fluid and “alternative facts” are abundant.<br />
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In this book, observations about Trump’s intellect (or lack thereof) are conspicuously absent. <b>These authors, like many, are astounded by the President’s attitudes and behavior, and assume that there must be some distinctly psychiatric underlay. But with each example, there is a question they failed to ask: what if he really is just that dumb?</b><br />
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Salesmanship and self promotion are talents well within the reach of many stupid narcissists, as well as sociopaths of average IQ. Success in these endeavors is not evidence of genius. The Presidency, however, does require a thoughtful, reflective, informed and orderly mind. It requires wisdom and intellect far above the norm.<br />
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A person of modest intellect might appear to be “a genius” in one context, while looking like quite the “moron” in another. Doubts about Trump’s intellect have been heard enough times from within his inner circle. Perhaps the 27 psychiatrists could have given that a bit more consideration.</div>
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Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-3899782161246691302016-10-23T16:30:00.039-07:002021-08-01T11:48:01.662-07:00Actions Aside, Trump’s Attitude Towards Sexual Misconduct Remains Disturbing<span id="docs-internal-guid-70c83b3e-7fff-0575-48ef-253928de25c1"><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">*This article was originally published at the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/actions-aside-trumps-attitude-towards-sexual-misconduct_b_580d2d0de4b0f8715789fd28" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a> in October 2016, before that year's election.</p></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div></span></span>Denying, explaining and excusing their behavior, criminal offenders will often inadvertently expose deplorable attitudes, values and beliefs. Failing to heed the standard advice (i.e., remain silent), they offer statements that may not count as a confession, but are nonetheless incriminating. A defendant I recently interviewed was charged with assaulting his elderly mother. His statement to the arresting officer was: “the b*tch deserved it.”</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8liaUaM4d547q8sw7zkemidZVxEAeZOpuGCTUBudcZJBovCX-sk0cUub9UZAX2mmf-D56iP_tFA8dhx8w39dFwV46Z12A926DH_IWz88YufIdvwp5GeCKH5d8aIk6Cmc_cc/s480/trump+self+satisfied.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik8liaUaM4d547q8sw7zkemidZVxEAeZOpuGCTUBudcZJBovCX-sk0cUub9UZAX2mmf-D56iP_tFA8dhx8w39dFwV46Z12A926DH_IWz88YufIdvwp5GeCKH5d8aIk6Cmc_cc/s320/trump+self+satisfied.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Responding to accusations of sexual misconduct, candidate Donald Trump explained that some misogynistic comments attributed to him were “entertainment” and that he was just bragging (“locker room talk”) when he claimed to be a sexual batterer. He suggested that some women are not sufficiently attractive to victimize. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Trump has questioned his accusers’ motives (seeking fame and fortune) and referred to them as “crazy” prevaricators and unstable “liars.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Irrespective of whether Trump ever acted on the impulse from the wayward bus, the words, ideas and attitudes expressed in his defense (men are pigs, get over it) remain abhorrent and disturbing. His </span><a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/donald-trump-lindsay-lohan-troubled-women-bed-howard-stern-938383" style="font-size: large;">December 2004 comments on Lindsay Lohan’s status as a sex object</a><span style="font-size: medium;"> are even more disturbing.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">On-air, Howard Stern baited Trump, predicting: “eventually, you trade her in for Lindsay Lohan, this Melania.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">The implication was that the soon to be married Trump would soon be seeking a younger wife. Lohan was 18 in 2004 and had never appeared on-screen, other than as a teenager. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Trump responded to Stern enthusiastically. Trump said that he had “seen a close up of her chest” and that to find her attractive, Howard would have to be “into freckles.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Stern baited Trump again, asking “can you imagine the sex with this troubled teen?” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Trump was quick to imagine and may not have heard Stern use the word “teen.” Be that as it may, Trump proceeded to discuss why “troubled” and “crazy women” can be preferred sex objects (“they’re always the best in bed”). As a criminal forensic psychologist, what I heard was a discussion about how to identify the vulnerable while choosing sexual prey. Trump endorsed the idea of seeking out the emotionally wounded.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">This Stern interview reminded me of two different sexual assault cases in which the accused told me that women routinely consent to sex with strangers, after dark, in nightclub parking lots. One said “I didn’t have to force her.” The other said “she was ok with it,” but admitted, “I had to hit her.” Both had sought vulnerable prey, believing that “when they’re drunk, they let you do it.” </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe Trump has never acted on the impulses and fantasies he has celebrated. I know that others have. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Offenders are enabled by attitudes and beliefs. Attitudes (like righteousness or entitlement) can serve to “unshackle” impulses. Distorted beliefs can provide an impetus and a justification for behavior. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Trump will never admit to sexual assault and some will always believe him. Still, we should be alert to the attitudes he expressed and the beliefs on display. Young men should not be taught that they are sexually privileged or immune from consequences.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><br />
<hr />Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<hr /></div></div>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-79726819006690067682016-08-29T09:43:00.001-07:002019-05-28T09:51:32.497-07:00Expert opinion: Donald Trump does not have a personality disorder<div dir="ltr">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxowtEbJh61WgeLiApU4-BNL66eVkOvFEZETtM0DEitPWt9NouDtWCe89dABMSPO2q1z6xYGbGetNb0_tiv6LhRMxMMySsKUeKyhGro497XzOw9AcAqM8ojaXeYV-2DBWeq6Y/s1600/image-772123.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6324291119472206210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxowtEbJh61WgeLiApU4-BNL66eVkOvFEZETtM0DEitPWt9NouDtWCe89dABMSPO2q1z6xYGbGetNb0_tiv6LhRMxMMySsKUeKyhGro497XzOw9AcAqM8ojaXeYV-2DBWeq6Y/s320/image-772123.jpeg" /></a><a class="" href="http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article97654917.html" style="color: rgb(102 , 0 , 153); float: left; line-height: 15.6px; margin: 3px 8px 0px 0px; text-decoration: none; width: 100px;"></a><br />
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<a class="" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwij2tfjhufOAhUH0mMKHfLNAYkQqQIIJigAMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sacbee.com%2Fopinion%2Fcalifornia-forum%2Farticle97654917.html&usg=AFQjCNGQE0TXgWyeN0Gtaa9wySWTemO--Q&sig2=rE7npNAEqjaiG4yMR-G7Mw&bvm=bv.131286987,d.cGc" style="color: rgb(102 , 0 , 153); font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none;">One expert's opinion: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Trump</span> does not have a <span style="font-weight: bold;">personality disorder</span> ...</a></h3>
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<span class="" style="color: rgb(0 , 102 , 33); font-size: 13px;">Sacramento Bee</span><span class="" style="color: rgb(102 , 102 , 102); padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="" style="color: rgb(102 , 102 , 102); display: inline-block; font-size: 13px;">Aug 25, 2016</span></div>
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<span class="" style="display: block;">BY PAUL G. MATTIUZZI</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: lyon, georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Personality and character are always at issue in a presidential election, as is the sanity of the candidates. When a contender is referred to as a madman or lunatic, the comment is usually understood to be hyperbole.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">No one has accused Donald Trump of hearing voices or howling at the moon. However, many have called him a narcissist.</span><br />
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I have qualified in court as an expert in the psychodiagnostic arts. In prisons and in jails, I commonly encounter narcissists, owing to the fact that clinical narcissism is a core component of the psychopathic mind and sociopathic character.</div>
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As an expert in diagnosing disturbances of mind, emotion and character, I can state confidently that Donald Trump does not have narcissistic personality disorder – a condition listed in the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.<br />
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To start with, a diagnostic label cannot be assigned to an individual without their consent or without legal authorization. No law requires politicians to submit to psychological fitness examinations.</div>
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More importantly, Trump does not meet the criteria for a diagnosis.</div>
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To qualify as a disorder, a character style must generate clinically significant distress or actual adaptive impairment. The imperceptible line between normal and malignant is crossed only when the character traits cause the individual harm.</div>
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Trump has done well in life. He has never been arrested or homeless. He is apparently free from disabling anxiety. Rather than being hampered by his magnified ego, he has validated it and reveled in it. A central rationale for his candidacy is that he is a "winner."</div>
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Without symptoms of distress or functional impairment, it cannot be said that Trump has a diagnosable personality disorder.</div>
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To understand Trump in psychological terms, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is the wrong textbook to consider. The question is about personality dynamics, not diagnosis. Instead, I would suggest a seminal text by J. Reid Meloy: "The Psychopathic Mind."</div>
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Psychopathy is considered to be a particular type of narcissism. Blinded by an enduring belief in their own goodness, wonder and rectitude, these individuals fail to understand how anything they do could ever be wrong.</div>
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The hallmark of the psychopath is "predatory aggression." At a characterological level, a con artist selling get-rich seminars is just like a guy with a knife, lurking in an alley. The profile also applies to the "aggressively domineering psychopath" – another type of predator, commonly known as a "bully."</div>
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According to Meloy, "the psychopath is an imposter." Their projected self-image is a matter of smoke and mirrors. While an ordinary narcissist might feel "a sense of being a fake," the sociopath has no awareness of their false self: "he does not merely play the role, observing the limits of his character, but lives the part, sometimes oblivious to the deceptions promulgated by his behavior."</div>
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Characters of this type are not invincible. As Meloy notes, "The psychopathic character is haunted by the shadow of his own grandiose self, for the ways in which he induces shame and humiliation in others may always be done to him."</div>
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Psychopaths are particularly vulnerable to "narcissistic injury" – trauma to the ego caused by insult or rejection. The inflated self is sometimes punctured like a balloon. Crimes of passion, in my experience, are often precipitated by an assault on a narcissist's identity. Someone tells them "I'm leaving" or "you're fired," and they go ballistic. Some can be baited with a tweet.</div>
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Trump cannot be diagnosed, but he can be compared to the psychodynamic portrait of a psychopath, the type who understands morality, propriety and the world around them through a self-focused lens and a self-indulgent hunger.</div>
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This, I should say, is all just opinion. People assert: "he can't sue me for saying that!" My experience is that a psychopath will sue you anyway.</div>
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-91952823358050126152016-06-20T09:29:00.001-07:002021-08-08T14:02:20.338-07:00The "Too Good Be True Test" is a Worthless Aphorism<div dir="ltr">
When it comes to avoiding scams, schemes and other rip-offs, there is no more universal piece of advice than: "if it's too good to be true it probably isn't." This is usually said <b><i>after</i></b> someone has been victimized.<br />
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Most everyone is familiar with this pithy observation - an aphorism with a ring of truth to it - but it is familiar only because the warning so persistently fails to prevent people from jumping into the quicksand.<br />
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In hindsight, it is easy to see that relative to the cost and risk involved, the expected gain was unrealistic. In the rear view mirror, it is obvious that the promises were extravagant, false and empty.<br />
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To know whether something is true and to be trusted, we are told that all you have to do is measure how good it is.<br />
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<b>The problem is that "goodness" is not a valid or reliable measure of truth. </b><br />
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<a name='more'></a>If you won the Super Lotto (for real), that would be about as good as it gets. Still, the only thing determining whether it is true or not are the numbers on your ticket. If you actually won (for real), it would be both unbelievably good and true.<br />
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Could you be a millionaire someday? Yes, you too can be a millionaire – if you save enough for enough years. Having that much would be good, and if you achieved it, it would be true.<br />
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It is not true that you can get-rich quick, unless you have improbable luck, exceptional talent, or remarkable skill. All other routes to a fast fortune involve substantial risk. This holds true, irrespective of "how good" any particular opportunity might appear.<br />
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The time-honored aphorism provides little protection from sorrow and disappointment.<br />
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<b>What actually matters is not whether something is too good to be true, but whether it is true enough to be good. What needs to be judged is not the "goodness," but the truth of the representation. </b><br />
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It is not true that you just won a vacation. What is true is that someone is willing to bet money that they can successfully pitch you a costly investment. They know exactly what that bet is worth and will profit as reliably as a casino.<br />
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It is not true that anyone has any hot tips or investment secrets to share with you. Markets are efficient. The only "special opportunities" are things like insider trading and the first rungs on a pyramid-Ponzi scheme.<br />
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It is not true that real estate investing is ever low risk. The get-rich theory is that you can buy on margin (i.e., borrow) and leverage up, because bubbles never burst.<br />
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It is true that a get-rich seminar will cost you dearly. For the promoters, it is better than running a casino. They are betting that over the course of a weekend, they can upsell you on the whole banana. You pay them for the privilege of being prey for the pitchman - there is no <i>free</i> vacation. It is not true that the value of a get-rich seminar could ever exceed the cost of a few textbooks or a local course.<br />
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It is not true that selling overpriced snake-oil to friends and family will lead to anything good. If you are trying to enlist every customer as a salesperson, you are part of a pyramid. The profit comes from turning prey into predator. <br />
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<b>Fraudulent schemes depend on the victim's failure to know what is knowable.</b> The gold watch dangles, the audience is mesmerized - doubt, reason, and access to knowledge are suspended. People believe something is true because it feels so good.<br />
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Psychologist Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics for exploring irrational forces in human decision making. In his formulation, decisions can either be fast and emotional or slow and thoughtful.<br />
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<b>Truth can be tested against fact and observation, but not against feelings and impulses.</b> In that sense, the perceived goodness measure is relative and subjective. Goodness does not necessarily correlate with either truth or consequences - even at the "too good" end of the scale.<br />
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Flim-flam artists depend on outright lies convincingly told, implausible assertions supported by improbable facts, and erroneous conclusions founded on irrelevant information - and the dangling gold watch. The aphorism serves only to assign blame to the victim, without being curative or prophylactic.<br />
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No one wants to be fooled once, twice or again. To avoid the proverbial shame, forget about whether it feels too good to be true, and think about whether it is true enough to be good.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-72635203798303027802016-06-08T15:21:00.004-07:002021-08-31T12:20:16.810-07:00Do Psychopaths Genuinely Lack Empathy, Or Are They Feeling You?<div dir="ltr">
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<div style="line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-aa2f2d70-7fff-076f-0508-d5168fc5e114"><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/do-psychopaths-genuinely-_b_10287312" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Originally published at the Huffington Post</span></a></span></div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 730px; padding: 0px; width: 630px;"><div style="line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-69b77155-7fff-6439-e321-7d8ecc1cb56d"><div style="font-family: notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most common observation made about </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-g-mattiuzzi/psychopath-or-sociopath-i_b_9650270.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">psychopaths</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is that they feel no empathy. I have said it myself in Courtroom testimony, repeating a truism I picked up years ago: “they fail to empathize and are therefore prone to victimize.”</span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=empathy" style="font-family: notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Empathy</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> refers to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As noted in an essential text (</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Psychopathic-Mind-Origins-Dynamics-Treatment/dp/0876683111" style="font-family: notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Psychopathic Mind</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D.) the science unequivocally “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">supports the hypothesis that</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">psychopathic individuals</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” (i.e., those with “antisocial personality disorder”) “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are autonomically hyporeactive</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” In other words, their biology is such that they do not experience emotions as intensely as others, and therefore, it is thought that they are not inhibited by guilt, fear, anxiety, self-doubt, or remorse. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This does not mean that con men and criminals have no feelings at all. As Meloy observed, in situations where an emotional reaction would be expected from “a more socialized, empathic individual,” they might feel little or nothing. But at the same time, they can can display “intense, unmodulated affect that is dramatized by its unpredictably.” </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is readily observed that psychopaths experience feelings such as anger, resentment, envy and jealousy. Narcissism - a core element of the sociopathic character type - can produce powerful feelings of self-righteousness and entitlement. When caught and in custody, many will feel distress - not every one of them is a cool customer. </span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Psychopaths certainly have the capacity to feel a range of emotions. The description of them as having </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reptilian </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(snake-like) brains is mostly a metaphor.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When you consider how they are able to control, manipulate and dominate people, it is apparent that they are quite adept at understanding and sharing the feelings of others. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lack of “empathy” or not, they are typically quite skilled at “</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">feeling you</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How does a hardened male prisoner convince a female correctional officer to bring him nude photos of herself? How could that happen? An unrepentant killer once explained it to me. Over time, he connected as a real person and engaged her emotions. He shared her feelings, obtained her trust, created an emotional dependency, and then corrupted her. He had done this before, relying on his mastery of empathy to exploit the needs and feelings of others. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is no different with the sociopath selling a pyramid-scheme, a Ponzi investment, or a get-rich seminar. They can feel their victim’s greed or desperation, and the potency of their hopes and dreams. Showmen and carnival barkers feel their audience to entice and seduce them, as do all charlatans, hucksters and snake-oil peddlers. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is also no different with an </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">aggressively domineering psychopath </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(aka, “bully”). Bullies operate by exploiting a power differential. It can be real or perceived, and either social or physical. In the interest of dominating, they seek to evoke feelings of shame, frustration, terror or fear. Their attacks are informed by their ability to sense the emotional vulnerabilities of their victims - to feel them and to know how they can be intimidated or twisted, provoked or incited. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Psychopaths can have rich emotional lives. As narcissists, they strive for love, admiration, and self-indulgent gratification. As predators, they are aroused by the hunt and the suffering of their prey. They may obtain pleasure in seeing others shamed and may find gratification in an opponent’s misery. It is thought that because they are emotionally </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">hyporeactive, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they seek excitement and stimulation. It takes more for them to feel alive, and so it makes sense that they would feed off the emotions of others. </span></div><div><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To say that a psychopath lacks “empathy” is to reach for a broader definition of the term. It is a definition of empathy that involves sympathy and an unselfish, altruistic impulse. It is an emotion that guides us towards feeling the pain of others and treating them as we would wish to be treated. </span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When it is said that a psychopath is lacking in empathy, what is actually meant is that they are lacking in compassion, kindness, and a shared vision of morality. It means they reserve justice for themselves and believe that fairness is measured by what is good for them.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether in a dark alley or a high-rise tower, the psychopath seeks to dominate others in order to satisfy their own desires. To deploy fear, shame or deceit to acquire your submission, the psychopath needs to know how you feel and how you will react. They do not care about you or empathize in that sense, but you should never doubt that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they are feeling you</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span></div></span><span face="notonashkarabic, "helvetica neue", helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-3388633194768250602016-04-12T15:55:00.000-07:002018-09-02T14:40:51.392-07:00Psychopath or Sociopath? It Makes no Difference What you Call Them<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-g-mattiuzzi/psychopath-or-sociopath-i_b_9650270.html?">Originally published at The Huffington Post.</a><br />
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From the earliest days in my career as a criminal forensic psychologist, I have encountered treatises and learned discussions about the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths. Still, to this day, I have never had reason to use the terms, other as than as synonyms.</div>
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From my days in training, I recall a psychiatrist saying that a Mafia don (referring to<em>The Godfather</em>) was different from other criminals. The Don could be called a sociopath - his "pathology" consists of having moral values that diverge from those of society. The psychiatrist reserved the term "psychopath" for a different class of criminal - blood lust killers, for example.</div>
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<strong>The standard diagnostic term for those with a criminal orientation is antisocial personality disorder.</strong></div>
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In the <a href="http://www.behaviorismandmentalhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/DSM-II.pdf" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">DSM-II</a> (page 43) - the diagnostic manual in use when I trained - antisocial personalities were described as "unsocialized" individuals who were selfish, impulsive, irresponsible, and in conflict with society. Incapable of feeling guilt, they characteristically blame others and excuse their own transgressions. Criminal behavior alone was not enough for the diagnosis, nor was "social maladjustment."</div>
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More specific criteria were established in the next edition, DSM-III. The fourth edition (DSM-IV, 1994) noted that the antisocial pattern "<em>has also been referred to as psychopathy, sociopathy, or dyssocial personality</em>." That language was preserved in DSM 5.0.</div>
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In practice, antisocial personality is a relatively useless diagnosis. It describes many common criminals, but it does not convey a sense of the evil and depravity displayed by some. Additionally, the diagnosis does not apply until someone is either caught or their enterprise fails, when it becomes a problem or source of distress.</div>
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To be useful, a label or diagnosis must serve to summarize and communicate something specific. The antisocial diagnosis is typically used simply to indicate that the person has a criminal history. The term tells us little about their attitudes, values and beliefs, and almost nothing about their motivations or psychological dynamics.</div>
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The most commonly used "test" for antisocial personality disorder is the<a href="http://www.minddisorders.com/knowledge/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist.html" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Psychopathy Checklist</a> (PCL-Revised). It is not actually a test that can be taken, but instead, an assessment protocol involving clinical ratings and a review of the individual's history. How useful it is for what purposes is always a matter of debate. What the PCL-R does provide, however, is a description of the emotional and interpersonal style of a psychopath, and the personality traits that contribute to deviant behavior.</div>
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Theorists seeking to distinguish psychopathy from sociopathy often focus on whether there was violence involved in the signature behavior, or whether it was just a matter of thievery and deceit. With this formulation, O.J. Simpson might be called a psychopath, and Bernie Madoff would earn the title of sociopath.</div>
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<strong>Neither the DSM or the Psychopathy Checklist makes the above distinction. The diagnostic formula applies similarly to the psychopath lurking outside your window and the sociopath in the executive office.</strong></div>
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To account for the difference between killers and con men, some theorists say that violent and aggressive sociopathy results from genetics. In contrast, they say that the cunning and manipulative learned to be that way.</div>
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In the science and the literature, when it comes to psychopaths, there is no essential distinction to be found between the influence of heredity versus the environment, or between nature and nurture. The consensus understanding is that biology and experience are both involved in shaping psychosocial development.<em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048977/" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">The Bad Seed</a></em> theory of criminality has never been a sufficient or sufficiently general explanation.</div>
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In the context of forensic psychology - applying theory and data to legal questions - there is no use at all in labeling some as psychopaths and others sociopaths. What matters is understanding the psychological corruption and deviant behavior of the individual character.</div>
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<strong>Irrespective of the individual characteristics, there remains a unifying factor underlying <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychopathic-Mind-Dynamics-Treatment/dp/0876683111" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink"><u>the psychopathic mind</u></a>: the dynamics of pathological narcissism and the grandiose self.</strong></div>
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The profile is that of someone who fervently believes in their own goodness, wonder and rectitude, therefore feeling righteous and entitled, justified and innocent, no matter what their sins. They believe that people get what they deserve, tending to view themselves as uniquely deserving and others as generally unworthy. Your rights are of no concern to them if you have what they want or get in their way.</div>
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It makes no difference what you call them - psychopath or sociopath - or how critically you assess them. They are armed with self-righteousness and are immune to invective. As an alternative, you may also refer to psychopaths as chameleons, vultures or scorpions.</div>
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-46437487767333657312015-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:002016-08-30T13:11:29.704-07:00The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) Movie Trailer: An Allegory for the APA Ethics-Torture Fiasco<div dir="ltr">
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<span class="gmail-_tQb gmail-_IId" style="color: rgb(0 , 102 , 33); font-size: 13px;">Originally published at The Huffington Post</span><span class="gmail-_v5" style="color: rgb(102 , 102 , 102); padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="gmail-f gmail-nsa gmail-_uQb" style="color: rgb(102 , 102 , 102); display: inline-block; font-size: 13px;">Jul 30, 2015</span></div>
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On July 10, 2015, the American Psychological Association (APA) released <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Hoffman Report</em>, an independent investigation into the ethics and behavior of psychologists and the Association, relative to the Bush-era CIA "torture" experiments.</div>
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A week later, by coincidence, director Kyle Patrick Alvarez's film <em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://www.prisonexp.org/movie" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)</a></em> was released in theaters. The movie is billed as an accurate portrayal of a famous 1971 research project that was conceived and overseen by Stanford psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo.<br />
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Billy Cudrup as Professor Philip Zimbardo,<br />
author of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Lucifer Effect,</em> in<br />
<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Stanford Prison Experiment</em> (2015) - IFC Films</div>
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The APA's "tortured ethics" report is 580 pages long, and it recounts events that occurred over the course of more than a decade. The discussion that has followed in the professional community suggests that there remains some ambiguity about the dimensions and implications of the moral-ethical failings involved. The report has been received like a Rorschach print ("<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">what do you see?</em>") rendered in disturbing shades of gray (chiaroscuro).</div>
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The movie trailer is in dramatic color and admits to no ethical ambiguity. It is an allegory or vignette that serves to illustrate what happened with the APA. The movie is based on Zimbardo's book, <em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-People/dp/0812974441" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil</a></em>.</div>
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Studies of evil behavior were prominent post-WWII. Psychologists in Berkeley focused on individual character traits and the dynamics of <em style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">The Authoritarian Personality</a></em> (a seminal text). In Palo Alto, funded by the Navy, the experimentalists decided to create a simulated prison experience with students in the role of guards and prisoners. The plywood prison was built in a campus basement.</div>
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The "prisoners" were locked in the bunker 24/7. As the movie poster says: "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">They were given 2 weeks. It lasted 6 days</em>." It became like the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Lord of the Flies</em>.</div>
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In fact, the experiment went awry in the first 36 hours. The subject identified as "Prisoner 8612" (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3009232/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">Ezra Miller</a>) wanted to leave and was effectively detained against his will. He was not released until he convinced Zimbardo that he was genuinely and extremely distressed. Ethical challenges emerged, right from the start.</div>
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<a href="https://youtu.be/7LviGTHud5w?t=1m45s" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">In the movie trailer, starting at 01:45 minutes</a>, the experiment is well underway when one of the control booth observers says, in a puzzled voice: "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">what was that?</em>"</div>
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Violence has emerged and they ask the prison superintendent if they should step in. Zimbardo (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001082/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">Billy Crudup</a>) responds: "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">No, let the guards figure it out ... let's see where it goes</em>."</div>
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The tension escalates until Christina Maslach (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1880888/?ref_=nv_sr_1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #2e7061;">Olivia Thirlby</a>) arrives. Dr. Maslach tells Zimbardo: "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Those are not prisoners, those are not subjects ... those are boys and you are harming them</em>."</div>
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The trailer ends with Zimbardo hanging his head and saying in a regretful tone: <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">I had no idea it would turn out this way</em>."</div>
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In real life, before Maslach found out what was happening and stated the obvious, multiple individuals and outside observers had failed to raise an objection. Prisoner 8612 objected and was punished.</div>
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That is precisely what happened in the case of the APA. When it first became known that psychologists were connected with enhanced interrogations, the APA basically said "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">let the guards figure it out, let's see where this goes</em>."</div>
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The potential for harm should have been obvious to the APA, and those who protested loudly were punished. Multiple individuals signed-off on an ethics standard that somehow ended up being used as an <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">imprimatur</em> for ethically-challenged behavior. Now it is a crisis for the organization - a complete fiasco.</div>
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Much of the discussion in the professional community is about the potentially irrelevant question of whether or not anyone acted with intent or culpable negligence. The APA has vowed to reform itself and to recalibrate its "ethical compass." There was a public apology that some found wanting because it focused on <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">regrets</em>, rather than <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">remorse</em>.</div>
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Just like in the movie trailer, the APA has had to hang its head. Just like in the allegory, the APA stared evil in the face, failed to recognize it, and ended up dumbfounded, astonished by its own ignorance. Heads have started to roll and there is a demand for change.</div>
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As a whole, the profession is not yet satisfied with the response from the leaders of our organization. Psychologists are asking for something more than just "<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">we had no idea it would turn out this way</em>."</div>
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The APA now finds itself in a position similar to that of Herman Melville's <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Billy Budd</em>. Rather than exuding goodness, the association exhibited naivete. Billy Budd's naive innocence was a fault, not a virtue, and he was corrupted by evil because he failed to recognize it when it stared him in the face.</div>
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-85193559090130633692015-01-30T15:46:00.000-08:002016-08-25T16:00:18.000-07:004 Fs of Stress: Beyond Fight or Flight<div dir="ltr">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-g-mattiuzzi/4-fs-of-stress-beyond-fig_b_6567936.html?" target="_blank">Originally published at The Huffington Post</a><br />
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The "fight or flight response" is routinely invoked as a shorthand way of explaining that psychological stress involves activation of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. Too often, the explanation ends there, with the implication that this form of arousal is a bad thing.<br />
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The implications are different when the response is considered in context and in contrast to the activation of the parasympathetic division.</div>
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Both involve the release of hormones. In one case, the body is preparing to take action (e.g., an increase in heart rate, respiration and perspiration). Activation of the complementary parasympathetic division is associated with relaxation and the body's restorative functions (e.g., sleep and digestion).</div>
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What is missed in the shorthand explanation of stress is that the "fight or flight" response is also active when you ride on a roller coaster, ski down a mountain, or go surfing on Maui.</div>
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In his definitive text on the biopsychosocial complexities of stress (<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third-Edition/dp/0805073698" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers</a></em>), Stanford Biology and Neuroscience Professor Robert M. Sapolsky explains that <em>fast-acting, short-lasting</em> stress hormones like adrenaline (epinephrine) are released when life is either exciting (good) or alarming (bad).</div>
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<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=EI88oS_3fZEC&pg=PT40&dq=sapolsky+obligatory+lame+joke&hl=en&sa=X&ei=erPJVM--GZXroATPs4LgCg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sapolsky%20obligatory%20lame%20joke&f=false" style="color: #2e7061;" target="_hplink">Sapolsky notes</a> that in medical schools, this initial activation of the nervous system is described in terms of the <strong>"four Fs of behavior — fight, flight, fear and sex."</strong></div>
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Sexual arousal begins as a function of the relaxation response, but when it ends with orgasm, the prepare-to-take-action hormones are involved.</div>
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If <em>fast-acting</em> adrenaline was bad for you, then having good sex would be almost the same as being chased by a lion, in terms of stress at least. What is different is that after sex, you might relax and think about having something to eat. After being chased by a lion, you don't relax and you think about being eaten.</div>
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<strong>At a psychological level, the difference between good excitement and bad distress is a matter of perception, or how you interpret the stimulus event. In terms of your health, what matters is how much excitement you can handle.</strong></div>
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When adrenaline is released to get you going, your body will also release <em>slow-acting, longer-lasting</em>, steroid-like stress hormones called "glucocorticoids." These<em>longer-lasting</em> steroidal hormones are the ones that do harm over time, especially if you have to run from the lion every day and think about it every night.</div>
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Persistent or chronic activation of the sympathetic division interferes with the body's homeostatic, restorative functions, and it results in a constant, rather than an intermittent flood of glucocorticoids in the body. The excitement may last for just a few minutes, but getting over it can take hours.</div>
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They say that in the jungle, "the lion sleeps tonight." The same cannot be said about those who worry about getting their head chewed off in the office everyday.</div>
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Even at the end of the day, fear, anxiety and ruminative thinking can keep the stress response active and keep the long-lasting, potentially harmful hormones flowing. In contrast to zebras and gazelles, humans tend to anticipate stressful events and to react on the basis of fear alone.</div>
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<strong>Unlike zebras, humans have the ability to control, manage and relieve stress. There are four ways this can be done:</strong></div>
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<strong>First, we can change our perception of events</strong>. Setbacks can be viewed as opportunities, frustrations as challenges, and insults as unworthy of attention. Counting your blessings can sometimes put hardships in perspective.</div>
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<strong>Second, we can choose to change, escape or avoid the situation causing our distress</strong>. As hard as this often seems, it may take less energy than fighting the idiots or fleeing the lion.</div>
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<strong>Third, we can enhance our coping skills and ego strengths</strong>. Growth experiences of all kinds can enable us to better handle tasks, to immunize us relative to our fears, and to reduce our emotional vulnerabilities. Social support also helps us cope, so do not be afraid to make friends and to ask for help.</div>
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<strong>Fourth, we can change the way our bodies react or interrupt the stress response as it starts</strong>. When you see the lion coming, take a deep breath before you do anything else. For the rest of the time, exercise regularly, go to bed early, eat healthy, and do yoga. Engage in activities that clear your mind and calm your body.</div>
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In the stress equation, the third F (fear) reminds us that our thoughts can be just as potent as external threats.</div>
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The fourth F (fornication) accounts for the fact that not all forms of stress and arousal are harmful.</div>
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-91975720367558491812015-01-10T05:36:00.000-08:002016-08-30T13:13:31.526-07:00Meaning and Purpose in Life: Commonplace or Hard to Come By?<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-g-mattiuzzi/meaning-and-purpose-in-li_b_6398216.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "century" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: #20124d;">Originally published at the </span></span>Huffington Post.</a><br />
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In all cultures and at all times, humans have sought to make sense of their existence. Man's search for meaning is a quest as ancient as the dawn of human consciousness.</div>
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For at least 100,000 years, humans have buried the dead with rituals and with artifacts, apparently believing that life involves something more than just running from the lion, hunting, gathering, and mating.</div>
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It is well established that a sense of purpose is necessary for psychological health, and in turn, for human adaptation and survival. If life did not seem worth it, our ancestors may have given up on running from the lion. If depressed, they may have been less enthusiastic about mating.<br />
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Human evolution depends on our motivation and our will to survive, our feeling that life always remains worth the effort.</div>
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In the September edition of the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Psychologist</em> ("<a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2014-03265-001" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6aa3b1; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">Life is Pretty Meaningful</a>"), Samantha J. Heintzelman and Laura A. King took note of a uniquely obvious and easily overlooked paradox in how we characterize meaning in life: "It is portrayed simultaneously as a necessity and as something that is next to impossible to attain."</div>
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The consistent finding from studies measuring the experience of meaningfulness is that most people say that their lives have meaning and purpose. It is not an experience in short supply.</div>
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Anything necessary for survival has to be abundant in nature. A trout needs more than just a bucket of water.</div>
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While it is an ordinary part of the human experience, we tend to view meaning as a rare commodity. We approach it as "a construct and experience shrouded in mystery" and readily accept that it must be "chronically lacking in people's lives."</div>
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The existentialists have told us that life is absurd and that individuals must create meaning for themselves. The alternative, as commonly depicted, is to journey to a mountaintop to ask a hermit-guru: "What is the meaning of life?"</div>
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If that is what it takes, the answer must involve knowledge scarce and precious, and something more than just happiness and satisfaction.</div>
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The research shows that "social exclusion reliably leads to lower ratings on meaningful existence" and that social connections enhance the experience. If being accepted by a tribe is all it takes to heighten the emotion, a sense of meaningfulness must not be hard to come by.</div>
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A positive mood is also an influence. Individuals who are untroubled will rate their sense of meaning higher. Whatever else a purposeful life may involve, people who are satisfied and content are not likely to feel they are missing anything.</div>
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In one experiment, subjects were shown pictures of trees and asked to judge the color contrast. When the trees were shown in the order of the changing seasons, subjects later scored higher on the Meaning in Life Questionnaire.</div>
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As Heintzelman and King pointed out, "we live in a world that generally is characterized by natural regularity" and our experience is enhanced by "the presence of reliable patterns or coherence in the environment."</div>
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In a world of seasons, sunrises and sunsets, we construct an orderly existence with everyday routines and daily rituals. In that context, it is reasonable to expect people to feel that their existence is in harmony with the natural order.</div>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/13/key-to-long-life_n_5315974.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6aa3b1; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">Because it is essential to our health</a>, we are continuously motivated to seek the experience of purpose and meaning. It is like food, an everyday desire. Like sex, it is not a longing that can be satisfied in a "once and for all" way.</div>
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When our ordinary needs are satisfied, we tend to seek more. It is in our nature to search out ultimate pleasures and exquisite flavors. Some people find the next level of meaning in religious enlightenment or ecstasy. Others reach for self-awareness, personal fulfillment or self-actualization. Some people turn inward, others reach out.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "century" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The quest for a higher purpose and a greater meaning (the "Holy Grail") is sometimes difficult and it has no end point. Still, it is not a hopeless journey. According to the research, most people easily find meaning, all along the way.</span>Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-5015029275760766442015-01-10T05:27:00.001-08:002016-08-25T16:12:51.354-07:00Pouring Salt on the Wound: Psychologists Identify the Effects of 'Institutional Betrayal'<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-g-mattiuzzi/pouring-salt-on-the-wound_b_5924048.html" target="_blank">Originally published at the Huffington Post.</a><div>
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Women exposed to sexual assault in the military suffer more trauma-related symptoms than female veterans sexually assaulted in civilian life. Children abused only in residential care settings are more likely to have difficulties as adults than children who were abused only at home.</div>
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Those are the findings from two studies that have helped define the role of "institutional betrayal" in the experience of traumatic stress.</div>
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Summarizing the literature in the <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/69/6/575/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6aa3b1; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">September edition</a> of the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Psychologist</em>(the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association), Carly Parnitze Smith and Jennifer J. Freyd state conclusively that institutional attitudes, priorities and behaviors significantly influence the development of post-traumatic distress.<br />
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To illustrate their point, Smith and Freyd tell <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/lizzy-seeberg-suicide/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6aa3b1; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">the story of Lizzy Seeberg</a>, a 19-year-old student who committed suicide 10 days after reporting that she had been sexually assaulted by another student. It was not the alleged rape that caused her despair. It was the response from the university and the community that let her down.</div>
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In their research with trauma victims (mostly sexual assault), the authors measured the occurrence of betrayal events and found a consistent association with trauma-related outcomes and symptoms of greater severity.</div>
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Institutional betrayal can involve acts of both omission and commission. Retaliation is the most obvious act of commission. A person complains and suddenly the organization turns hostile.</div>
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Passive forms of betrayal include institutional tolerance for bad acts, investigations lacking transparency, untimely complaint resolution, inadequate or inconsistent sanctions, and other forms of effective indifference. Filing a complaint carries the risk that you will be doubted, blamed, refused help and denied protection. People take that risk because they trust the institution to "fix it and make it right."</div>
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In closed systems (e.g., in universities, the military, churches, corporations, prisons and the NFL), that too often does not occur.</div>
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Betrayal can involve acting badly or not acting at all, and it can also vary in terms of whether it is "apparently isolated" or "apparently systemic."</div>
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Ambiguity arises when incidents are perceived as solitary, isolated events, "out of character" for a member of the institution. It becomes the football player (or coach) against the coed, the complaint dismissed under the rubric of "<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">it's a he-said she-said</em>." In the case of Lizzy Seeberg, the football player was not questioned until weeks later. From her perspective, it was a case of "<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">she-said-and-nobody-listened.</em>"</div>
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Institutional betrayal is potent because it represents a profound and fundamental violation of trust in a necessary dependency relationship. In that sense, it is similar to abuse in close relationships - it can be more harmful than abuse by a stranger. The breach of trust, the unreciprocated loyalty, and the exposure to retaliation are like a knife in the back.</div>
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Bound to an institution by enlistment, enrollment or employment, victims remain vulnerable while they cope. The coping most typically involves repression and denial, and other anxiety-based disturbances in awareness and memory. According to Smith and Freyd, these adaptive strategies "<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">allow for the maintenance of necessary relationships</em> (even abusive ones) <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">in a way that supports attachment behaviors</em>."</div>
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People are attached and dependent on the organization. They may not want to quit their job, quit school, leave the church or go AWOL. This is especially true when the affiliation is an essential element of the individual's identity. You are no longer a professor or a student if you leave the university and no longer a soldier if you choose discharge.</div>
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Betrayal events are more likely to occur in institutions of a common character.</div>
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The risk features involve power, privilege and prestige, the value placed on group membership, the prioritization of group loyalty, the impulse to protect an image, and an institutional sense of righteousness and entitlement. Penn State is given as an example -- the impulse was to protect the predator to preserve power and prestige.</div>
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Families holding incest and abuse secrets are of a relatively similar character. In both cases, blame and recrimination is commonly directed at the abuse victim, the person who disrupted the system.</div>
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janice-harper/bullying-shame_b_3936623.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6aa3b1; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">Anthropologist Janice Harper</a> has observed similar retaliation dynamics in both modern workplaces and indigenous tribal cultures. To describe how groups betray those who complain, Harper uses the terms <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shunning, shaming</em> and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">mobbing</em>.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Institutional betrayal</em> is a term for a persistent and pervasive factor in the abuse-trauma-distress equation and the process of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">secondary victimization</em>. Too often, instead of choosing to make things right, institutions react by pouring salt on the wounds and adding insult to injury.</div>
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Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-33210197414515650642014-02-19T17:15:00.003-08:002016-08-25T15:31:13.147-07:00McDonalds Mocked for Remarkable Stress Hormone Discovery?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.30; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Banksy gives foot massage </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />to relieve an executive's stress. </span></td><td class="tr-caption"><br /></td></tr>
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<span class="s1">New York City minimum wage workers have organized at <a href="http://fastfoodforward.org/"><span class="s2"><i>FastFoodForward.org</i></span></a><i>, </i>thinking that McDonalds is going to give them a raise. They are just poor people complaining about poverty, so to get attention, these activists decided to mock McDonalds. It’s not rocket science and the company is fair game. </span><br />
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<span class="s1">The headlines at <i>Salon.com </i>caught my eye: <i>“</i>McDonalds tells workers to ‘sing away stress’ and ‘chew away cares’ … <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/11/19/revealed_mcdonalds_tells_workers_to_sing_away_stress_chew_away_cares_and_go_to_church/"><span class="s2"><i>Stress hormone levels rise by 15% after ten minutes of complaining</i></span></a> … giant corporation warns employees.<i>”</i></span><br />
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<span class="s1">Pulled from the web the day after Christmas, the “<i>McResource Line</i>” must have been the work of consultants hired by HR. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">How else can you explain why a company that takes pride in cooking with healthy low-acid Canadian rapeseed oil (canola) would advise that <span style="color: #20124d;">“</span><i><span style="color: #20124d;"><b>olive oil can prevent the blues?</b>”</span> </i> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Maybe they were trying to send a message to B.B. King?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The employees were also told: “<i>two vacations a year can cut heart attack risk by 50%.” </i></span><br />
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<span class="s1">To put that into perspective, it is said that <a href="http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/stress-management/meditation-can-cut-your-risk-of-heart-attack-nearly-in-half.htm"><span class="s2">meditating twice a day</span></a> for 20 minutes can reduce the risk by 47%. Add that together with a vacation, and you are almost down to no risk at all. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Of course, that conclusion serves only to illustrate that risk reduction, expressed as a percentage, is not a useful statistic. The <a href="http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/heartattack/risks.html"><span class="s2"><i>Heart, Lung and Blood Institute</i></span></a><i> </i>message is more direct: stop smoking, get up off the couch, <i>and stop eating that minimum-wage-worker diet</i>. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="color: #20124d;">What is lost in the mockery is the obvious:</span></b> if McDonalds were to give workers two weeks paid vacation a year, plus two twenty-minute meditation breaks per day, McDonalds would have a much healthier workforce and would enjoy all of the attendant cost savings. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b>An even more remarkable and perhaps essential discovery is to be found in the company’s comment about “stress hormones.”</b> </span> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">First, McDonalds was obviously <u>not</u> trying to discourage employees from lawfully voicing concerns or complaints. McDonalds has been sued over things like hot coffee, so surely they know about <a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2012/03/what-is-workplace-retaliation-its-about.html#.Up9hh2Q6ljM"><span class="s2">retaliation laws</span></a>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span class="s1"><b>McDonald’s would </b></span><span class="s3"><b><u>not</u></b></span><span class="s1"><b> say to employees: “<i>if you complain, you will be punished - your stress hormones will rise in the next ten minutes.”</i></b></span><span class="s4"><i> </i></span></span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="color: #20124d;"><b>The conclusion, however, actually makes sense</b></span><span class="s4"><span style="color: #20124d;">.</span> </span></div>
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<span class="s1">You would expect an increase in the <i>slower-acting, longer-lasting </i>stress hormones (“glucocorticoids”) after ten minutes of any type of “complaining.” These hormones are like steroids and can be measured from a saliva sample. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I learned that from “<i>Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers</i>” by Stanford Biology and Neuroscience Professor Robert M. Sapolsky, a recognized and definitive text on the <i>biopsychosocial </i>complexities of stress.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="color: #20124d;">Briefly and oversimplified,</span></b> <i>fast-acting, short-lasting </i>stress hormones like adrenaline (epinephrine) are released when life is either exciting (good) or alarming (bad). </span></div>
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<span class="s1">This initial activation is often called the “fight or flight” response. Sapolsky notes that in medical schools, it is called “<i>the four F’s of behavior - fight, flight, fear, and sex.” </i></span><br />
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Sexual arousal is like fear to the extent that the same <i>"prepare-to-take-action hormones"</i> are released.</div>
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<span class="s1">If <i>fast-acting </i>adrenaline was bad for you, then having good sex would be the same as being chased by a lion, in terms of stress at least. What is different is that after sex, you might relax and think about having something to eat. After being chased by a lion, you don’t relax and you think about being eaten. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The<i> longer-lasting</i> steroidal hormones are the ones that do harm over time, especially if you have to run from the lion everyday and think about it every night. </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><b><span style="color: #20124d;">So what McDonalds has discovered could actually be a fundamental and perhaps universal workplace rule.</span></b> Simply put, if a worker has a concern and it is not resolved in ten minutes, the worker will suffer adverse impact. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">It is always hard to stand up - it is stressful - and those who do complain are a company’s most valuable employees. They are the ones who will tell you when something is wrong, before it gets worse. They are the ones who might mention, perhaps, that their low wages sometimes cause them to experience resentment at work. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">With these observations in mind (i.e., voicing complaints can cause harmful distress; happy employees make for happy meals), McDonalds could profit by implementing </span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span class="s5"><b>a new “ten minute employee concern, response and resolution rule.</b></span><span class="s1">”</span></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">To get proper credit and to make it easier to understand, McDonalds could call it the <i>Golden Arches Golden Rule: <b><span style="color: #20124d;">“</span></b></i></span><b><span style="color: #20124d;"><span class="s5">As you do unto shareholders, do also unto workers</span><span class="s1">.”</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span> <br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.</span><br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-2115730886367621812013-05-13T15:00:00.003-07:002023-04-12T14:21:28.363-07:00Aaron Antonovsky's insight on observing Holocaust survivors.An interview I gave to the Sacramento Bee was published this morning. I was asked about the escape of Amanda Berry with her child, and the rescue of two other women after years being caged in a house in Cleveland by a sadist.<br />
<br />
When interviewed, I discussed an observation about Holocaust survivors that was made by the late Aaron Antonovsky, an American-born <i>medical sociologist </i>(doctorate from Yale) who made his career at the Israel Institute for Applied Social Research in Jerusalem. <br />
<br />
Antonovsky is not as well known as he should be. To the extent that he is known, it is for "a theory" that he called the <i><a href="https://www.everydaypsychology.com/2007/04/sense-of-coherence.html">sense of coherence</a> </i>and a term he coined: <i><b><span style="color: #444444;">salutogenesis</span></b>. </i><br />
<i></i><br />
<a name='more'></a>Antonovsky's first book was titled "<i>Health, Stress and Coping: new perspectives on mental and physical well-being," </i>(1979). His second was "<i>Unraveling the Mystery of Health: how people manage stress and stay well, </i>(1987)<i>. </i><br />
<i><br />
</i> Antonovsky described the observation I referred to as "<i>a fundamental turning point in my work as a medical sociologist." </i><br />
<i><br /></i>The study in which Antonovsky found his turning point was not specifically about Holocaust survival. It was a <i>1970</i> study of "adaptation to climacterium of women in different ethnic groups in Israel" (i.e., health adaptation to either menopause or aging). <br />
<br />
Across the groups, most women (more than half) displayed good emotional health. Among those who had been in concentration camps, it was only 29%. More than two-thirds of the survivors were still troubled. It made sense that they would be troubled, given their experience. <br />
<br />
What did not make sense to Antonovsky was that 29% were psychologically healthy: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>To have gone through the most unimaginable horror of the camp, followed by years of being a displaced person, and then to have reestablished one's life in a country which witnessed three wars ... and still be in reasonable health?" </i></blockquote>
Antonovosky began searching for the roots of <i>human resilience - </i>whatever it is that enables us to cope with life, however life comes at us. What he realized is that you cannot find the answer by looking at how people get sick or how to prevent illness. He said you have to look at it from the perspective of how people <i>become healthy</i> or how they <i>create health </i>(the <i>salutogenic </i>model of health)<i>. </i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">Central to Antonovsky's theory is the observation that healthy adaptation to life requires a </span></b><i><b><span style="color: #20124d;">sense of meaning.</span></b> </i><div><span style="color: #20124d; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #20124d; font-weight: bold;">In simple terms, you cannot achieve physical or psychological health if you do not have an <i>enduring belief </i>that life is worth living. </span>It is a theory that explains why faith and hope can be life-sustaining in a medical crisis, in ordinary life, and in all types of extraordinary circumstances. <br />
<br />
Viktor Frankl, the influential Austrian existentialist, neurologist, psychotherapist and concentration camp survivor made the same point in the title of his seminal book: "<i>Man's Search for Meaning" </i>(1959). <br />
<br />
Describing his own survival, Frankl said (in part) that he was sustained by an awareness of the meaning of <i>love </i>and his understanding of the phrase: "<i>the angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory</i>."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b>The difficulty in discussing how people survive trauma</b></span> is that if you refer to any type of "<i>triumph of the human spirit," </i>it could imply that some did not have enough faith, will, strength or determination. <br />
<br />
If you contemplate why some do not survive, you can come dangerously close to blaming or inducing guilt in victims of all types. Why didn't the rape victim fight harder? Why did the abused woman return to her man? How come everybody else got over it and you didn't? <i>Those questions lead us to the wrong answers</i>. <br />
<br />
The human <i>spirit</i> and <i>psyche</i> can in fact be broken by trauma and terror, no matter what the character strength of the individual. We know this with certainty because everyday in America right now, 22 of our most capable, disciplined, honored and well-trained young men and women commit suicide. Right now, 22 Veterans per day are committing suicide, and it cannot possibly be their fault. <br />
<br />
By referring to Antonovsky's <i>turning point observation, </i>I was invoking the idea that we should always be amazed by those who survive any adversity in life, and that theoretically and empirically, we know what is at the root of how they do it. <br />
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<br />
<hr />
Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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</div>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-73917772316422639022012-03-26T23:43:00.014-07:002022-09-11T12:16:06.856-07:00What is workplace retaliation? It's about making people afraid.<b><span style="color: #444444;">What is workplace retaliation?</span></b><br />
<br />
It is not what most people think it is. <br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #444444;">Retaliation is not the same as harassment or “hostilte workplace,” and it is not about people getting revenge or “getting back" at anyone. </span></b><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="color: #444444;">Retaliation is about making people afraid to complain or to assert their rights. <i>It is a subtle, but important distinction</i>.</span></b><br /><br />
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">In a retaliation case, the law is not concerned with why something happened or why someone did something. That is the issue in harassment and workplace hostility cases: did they do it because they don’t like certain people? ... was it a matter of discrimination?</span> <br />
<br />
In a retaliation case, the only concern is whether an "adverse action" (following from a complaint or "<i>protected activity</i>") would tend to discourage other people from complaining. It doesn't matter what the motive or intent was. <span class="s1"> It also doesn't matter whether the original complaint was valid. You cannot be punished for standing up. If they can punish you, who is ever going to speak out? </span><br />
<span class="s1"><br />
The common sense meaning of the term "retaliation" is not useful in Court because it is difficult to prove that someone did something because they were carrying a grudge or feeling resentment. When someone is suddenly treated differently at work, or assigned different responsibilities, or excluded from meetings or discussions, there is always some excuse or explanation. There is always some pretext (i.e., a “<i>made-up</i>” excuse).<br />
<br />
The Supreme Court decided (</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><i>see footnote</i></span><span class="s1">) that to protect employees from retaliation, there needed to be a an </span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>objective test</i></b></span><span class="s1">, one that does not depend on arguments about intent or purpose, or about who was mad at whom, or whose feelings were hurt, or whether the organization's reasons were honest or not.<br />
<br />
Those things are always difficult to prove, because as the Supreme Court said: "</span><span class="s2"><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">the real social impact of workplace behavior often depends on a constellation of surrounding circumstances, expectations and relationships</span><span style="color: #20124d;">.</span></i></b></span><span class="s1">" In other words, it is difficult to tell whether some action was actually malevolent. How something is viewed depends on the particular situation.<br />
<br />
The Supreme Court has made it clear that the law does not seek to establish a "<i>general code of civility</i>" for the American workplace. Employment law is not like an etiquette manual where you can just look up the answer and find out how people are supposed to behave. As an example, “<i>colorful language</i>” is offensive in an office, but it may seem ordinary on an offshore oil rig. <br />
<br />
In distinguishing between breeches of etiquette and significant harms, and in emphasizing the need to consider context, the Court was focusing on the test for harassment complaints. It makes sense that it is not harassment <i>every </i>time someone says a bad word at work. </span><br />
<span class="s1"><br />
</span><span class="s2"><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">Harassment and discrimination are different than retaliation.</span> </i></b></span><span class="s1"><br />
<br />
Harassment is about <i>abusive</i> work conditions. In general, if someone at work abuses <i>everyone</i>, that’s ok. That’s </span><span class="s3"><i>just</i></span><span class="s1"><i> “bullying” </i> (which is <i>another</i> topic). <br />
<br />
If people get picked on because of their gender or color (etc.), that is discrimination, and that is what Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits: <i>discrimination</i>.<br />
<br />
In creating an <i>objective </i>test for acts of retaliation, the Supreme Court linked the definition of "retaliation" to the actual purpose of the law prohibiting it. <br />
<br />
</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>The prohibition against retaliation is not for the purpose of protecting people from abuse</i></b></span><span class="s1">, or even discrimination. Acts of retaliation will certainly involve "<i>abuse,</i>" but what </span><span class="s2"><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">the anti-retaliation law is concerned about is protecting the individual's right to complain or to seek grievance</span><span style="color: #20124d;">.</span></i></b></span><span class="s1"><br />
<br />
What the Supreme Court said was that if people are afraid to report violations of the Civil Rights Act, or if they are afraid to offer witness, the law cannot effectively be enforced. Enforcement depends on the courage and cooperation of individuals. <br />
<br />
</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>Retaliation is prohibited so that people </i></b></span><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">can enjoy full access to the protection of the Civil Rights Act.</span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></i></b><span class="s1">It is prohibited so that people </span><span class="s2">will not be afraid or feel terrorized at work.</span><span class="s1"><b><i> </i></b></span><br />
<span class="s1"> <br />
</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b>The Supreme Court’s <i>objective test </i>for retaliation complaints was set forth in <i>Burlington Northern v. White. </i>It can be stated in simple terms:</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">If you engage in some protected activity (e.g., like blowing a whistle or filing a complaint) and then your job is changed in some way that is not good (i.e., it’s a <i>materially adverse </i>change), and if you and other reasonable people take that as a warning or even a disincentive to complain, it’s retaliation. </span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">In a retaliation complaint, the law is not concerned about whether or not it was meant to be a threat or meant to chill free speech. </span><span class="s2"><b><span style="color: #444444;">The <i>objective test </i>has to do with how people experience or respond to the events they observe. </span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></b></span><span class="s1"><br />
<br />
How people would respond is knowable, measurable and a matter of common sense and common experience. That is what makes it <i>objective. </i><br />
<br />
Intuitively, people know what retaliation looks like. Everyone knows that if you complain, there is a good chance you are going to be punished, and everyone knows about pretend excuses from management.<br />
<br />
</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>Retaliation is illegal, irrespective of the excuse.</i></b></span><span class="s1"> Even if they patch things up afterwards, </span>it is still illegal. If they give you back the office or put you back on the forklift, the harm has already been done. In the case of <i>Burlington Northern, </i>the Supreme Court said that it didn’t matter that the railroad compensated Sheila White with back-pay. The “<i>no-harm, no-foul</i>” rule does not apply.<br />
<span class="s1"> <br />
The prohibition against retaliation is not just a matter of law. It is not just a fair employment and Civil Rights issue. Making certain that employees feel empowered to voice their concerns is a test of organizational leadership. <br />
<br />
</span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>An organization cannot function effectively when workers are afraid.</i></b></span><span class="s1"> People won't ask questions they should ask, they won't report things they should report, and they won't stand up to authority when necessary. If management is the last to know when something is wrong, that is a problem.<br />
<br />
Somewhere in every workplace, there is a poster or a pamphlet that says <i>retaliation</i> is unlawful and prohibited. Hardly anywhere will you find something telling you exactly what retaliation actually consists of. It seems to be a matter of common sense, and clarity in the law has only existed for a half dozen years, since <i>Burlington Northern </i>in 2006. In the Courts, that is not long at all. <br />
<br />
While management may not yet have gotten the message, they certainly will. Ignoring employee complaints is a huge risk. In March 2012 in Sacramento, a jury made an award of $167 million in a retaliation case against a Catholic Hospital. There was no mercy for the Sisters of Mercy. <br />
<br />
</span><span class="s2"><b><i><span style="color: #444444;">Retaliation is workplace terrorism, and juries know it when they see it. That is the objective test that defines retaliation.</span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span></i></b></span><br />
<span class="s2" style="color: #20124d;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
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<div class="p4">
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<div class="p2">
<span class="s1">Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b><br />
</b></span><span class="s2" style="color: #444444;"><b><i>footnote</i></b></span><span class="s1"><span style="color: #444444;">: </span><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span><b><br />
<br />
</b>The Supreme Court rulings on retaliation law can be understood by reading just three cases, each of which was decided by a unanimous vote: <b><br />
<br />
</b><a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=523&page=75"><span class="s4"><i>Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services (1998)</i>: </span></a> <b><br /></b></span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="s1">An opinion delivered by Justice Antonin Scalia, <i>Oncale </i>is best known for having established that men can be victims of gender discrimination, just like women. <b> </b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">Of equal importance, the decision said that context matters, not every workplace tribulation is a matter of harassment. It depends on the “<i>constellation of surrounding circumstances, expectations and relationships.” </i>The law is not an etiquette book or <i>general civility code</i>. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">These are conservative opinions, and they provided a foundation for a conservative interpretation of the anti-retaliation provision. </span></blockquote>
<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/05-259.ZO.html"><span class="s4"><i>Burlington Northern v. Sheila White (2006):</i></span></a><b><br /></b></span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="s1"><i>Burlington Northern</i> established an objective test for retaliation claims: if you are somehow treated badly after voicing a complaint, and if that would make people think twice about speaking up, that’s retaliation. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">The Court ruled that even if an employer tries to make it up to the employee, the harm has been done when the adverse action was taken. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1"><i>Burlington Northern</i> also resolved a series of outstanding legal arguments about retaliation law. Before this, different Federal District Courts had different opinions about how to interpret the law. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="s1">From the decision: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="bodytext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Palatino, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-left: 64px; margin-right: 64px;">
The anti-retaliation provision protects an individual not from all retaliation, but from retaliation that produces an injury or harm. As we have explained, the Courts of Appeals have used differing language to describe the level of seriousness to which this harm must rise before it becomes actionable retaliation. We agree with the formulation set forth by the Seventh and the District of Columbia Circuits. In our view, a plaintiff must show that a reasonable employee would have found the challenged action materially adverse, “which in this context means it well might have ‘dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.’ ”<i style="background-color: transparent;">Rochon</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">, 438 F. 3d, at 1219 (quoting</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> </span><i style="background-color: transparent;">Washington</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Palatino, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">, 420 F. 3d, at 662).</span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="bodytext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Palatino, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-left: 64px; margin-right: 64px;">
We speak of <i>material</i> adversity because we believe it is important to separate significant from trivial harms. Title VII, we have said, does not set forth “a general civility code for the American workplace.” <i>Oncale</i> v. <i>Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.,</i> <a class="subref" href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?523+75" style="color: #005c72;" title="subref">523 U. S. 75</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=11837009" style="color: #005c72;" title="sorry, not yet linked">80</a> (1998) ; see <i>Faragher</i>, 524 U. S., at 788 (judicial standards for sexual harassment must “filter out complaints attacking ‘the ordinary tribulations of the workplace, such as the sporadic use of abusive language, gender-related jokes, and occasional teasing’ ”). An employee’s decision to report discriminatory behavior cannot immunize that employee from those petty slights or minor annoyances that often take place at work and that all employees experience. See 1 B. Lindemann & P. Grossman, Employment Discrimination Law 669 (3d ed. 1996) (noting that “courts have held that personality conflicts at work that generate antipathy” and “ ‘snubbing’ by supervisors and co-workers” are not actionable under §704(a)). The anti-retaliation provision seeks to prevent employer interference with “unfettered access” to Title VII’s remedial mechanisms. <i>Robinson</i>, 519 U. S., at 346. It does so by prohibiting employer actions that are likely “to deter victims of discrimination from complaining to the EEOC,” the courts, and their employers. <i>Ibid</i>. And normally petty slights, minor annoyances, and simple lack of good manners will not create such deterrence. See 2 EEOC 1998 Manual §8, p. 8–13.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="bodytext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Palatino, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-left: 64px; margin-right: 64px;">
We refer to reactions of a <i>reasonable </i>employee because we believe that the provision’s standard for judging harm must be objective. An objective standard is judicially administrable. It avoids the uncertainties and unfair discrepancies that can plague a judicial effort to determine a plaintiff’s unusual subjective feelings. We have emphasized the need for objective standards in other Title VII contexts, and those same concerns animate our decision here. See, <i>e.g.</i>,<i>Suders,</i> 542 U. S., at 141 (constructive discharge doctrine); <i>Harris</i> v. <i>Forklift Systems, Inc.,</i> <a class="subref" href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?510+17" style="color: #005c72;" title="subref">510 U. S. 17</a>, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=11837009" style="color: #005c72;" title="sorry, not yet linked">21</a> (1993) (hostile work environment doctrine).</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="bodytext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Palatino, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-left: 64px; margin-right: 64px;">
We phrase the standard in general terms because the significance of any given act of retaliation will often depend upon the particular circumstances. Context matters. “The real social impact of workplace behavior often depends on a constellation of surrounding circumstances, expectations, and relationships which are not fully captured by a simple recitation of the words used or the physical acts performed.” <i>Oncale</i>, <i>supra</i>, at 81–82. A schedule change in an employee’s work schedule may make little difference to many workers, but may matter enormously to a young mother with school age children. Cf., <i>e.g.</i>, <i>Washington, supra, </i>at 662 (finding flex-time schedule critical to employee with disabled child). A supervisor’s refusal to invite an employee to lunch is normally trivial, a nonactionable petty slight. But to retaliate by excluding an employee from a weekly training lunch that contributes significantly to the employee’s professional advancement might well deter a reasonable employee from complaining about discrimination. See 2 EEOC 1998 Manual §8, p. 8–14. Hence, a legal standard that speaks in general terms rather than specific prohibited acts is preferable, for an “act that would be immaterial in some situations is material in others.” <i>Washington</i>, <i>supra</i>, at 661.</div>
</blockquote>
<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-291.pdf"><span class="s4"><i>Thompson v. North American Stainless (2011):</i></span></a><b><br /></b></span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="s1">Re-affirms Burlington Northern and decides that you cannot retaliate against someone at work because of something their spouse or family member did somewhere else. </span></blockquote>
<span class="s1"><b> <br />
<br />
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</b> </span>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-64809813814486961262011-09-19T22:34:00.002-07:002022-08-12T14:27:07.351-07:00"A Yale Psychologist Calls for the End of Individual Psychotherapy?" Did I read that correctly?<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;">Here's the back story:</span></b> a famous, well-respected psychologist writes a hugely complex <a href="http://pps.sagepub.com/content/6/1/21.full#sec-6">journal article</a> and then gives an interview to <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/09/13/qa-a-yale-psychologist-calls-for-the-end-of-individual-psychotherapy/">TIME Healthland</a> online. The interview is as confusing as the journal article, and great controversy ensues in the profession. <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;"><b>Are people being mislead and confused? Are they being harmed? Does he have a valid point?</b></span><br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;">First, about the harm:</span></b> yes, some people are going to read this as a confirmation of their pre-existing belief that psychotherapy is a waste of time. But that is not so much harm. People who are distressed and who realize that it might be a good idea to speak with a professional are going to continue to seek help. They are the ones who will actually benefit. <br />
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;">Does Dr. Kazdin have some good ideas?</span></b> Yes. He spends a lot of time talking about the fact that psychological disorders and emotional troubles take a terrible toll on society and on the health of individuals. <br />
<br />
He also thinks that therapists should be able to offer a "portfolio of interventions." It is not at all a bad idea to use smart phones and the internet and other technologies to provide some treatments, as he suggests. <br />
<br />
Dr. Kazdin is in favor of prevention and in favor of expanding treatment options. He wants more people to be trained.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;"><b>So where does this article go wrong? </b></span><br />
<br />
I have written about this before: "<a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2009/12/psychologists-reject-science-oh-my.html">Psychologists Reject Science? ... Oh My!</a>"<br />
<br />
That article was about a movement in the profession to create a new model for understanding mental illness, a model that views science and the scientific method in a very narrow way. <br />
<br />
The goal of the "empirically based treatment" movement is to say that there is one particularly correct way to evaluate the usefulness of treatment. They say that the only measures that should be used are like the ones they use to test new drugs: randomized controlled trials ("RCTs"). And from that follows the assertion that therapy isn't worth doing if you don't deliver the treatment according to a standardized protocol. <br />
<br />
That in turn means that psychologists all should be trained in some specific way and that we need new training standards to make that happen. As for those of us who studied liberally and broadly in preparation for our work in understanding the human condition, well, some of us are just too old to catch on to the new way of doing things. <br />
<br />
<b style="color: #20124d;">This article tries to incorporate that entire agenda. </b>The journal article reads like a master treatise on the state of mental health in America and the difficult path towards salvation. Kazdin et al are advocating for the "<i>Machine in the Garden," </i>the technology that will transform the human condition. <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;"><b>Where Kazdin and others go wrong </b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;">is in believing they can fully operationalize what is typically a unique and essentially human interaction. </span></b><br />
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There are certainly times when it is relevant to focus on the diagnosis and the symptoms and to apply techniques that have proven their worth in a head-to-head matchup with a drug and a placebo. "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" done right and by the book is a godsend for many. <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d; font-weight: bold;">For most people, however, the decision to talk to someone and to be honest is a very personal decision and a very personal matter. </span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><br />
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It's like when you call your bank or tech support: you're sitting there punching those keys, doing whatever you can to get connected <i>to a human being</i>. <br />
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People benefit from therapy in a number of ways and for different reasons. It is not like speaking to a friend or a family member and it is something different than having your blood pressure checked or your tonsils removed.<br />
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Early in my training, I was told that what people want when they seek a psychologist's help is someone who will be honest with them. People are relieved and strengthened not because you trained them to tolerate their anxiety or to brood less about their disappointments. People are relieved when they know that someone has listened to them and understood them, and when they experience themselves trusting someone. <br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;"><b>The metaphor for the psychotherapeutic process is sometimes that of a sanctuary, a place of safety, and sometimes that of a crucible, a place where work can be done.</b></span> There are other metaphors that can be applied, but the consistent finding from the science is that individual <a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2006/11/does-therapy-work.html">therapy works</a> ... for many individuals and in many situations. <br />
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Sometimes, it is useful to drag out a protocol and to apply some empirical treatment rules. More often, people benefit from treatment because they have found a personal guide, rather than someone with a guidebook. <br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #20124d;">Is individual psychotherapy bound for the dustbin of history?</span></b> No, not at all. <br />
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People in distress are not going to stop seeking personal solutions to their personal problems, just because some empiricist claims there is a better technology. Psychologists are not the type of professionals who would ever ignore the science. But we are also not the type to seek simple solutions to complex problems or to understand things narrowly when a broader perspective is called for. <br />
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The number of clinicians who use "the couch" instead of a chair will always be limited. That does not mean that the lessons learned from "the couch" will be lost or that we are soon to see the end of TAU: "therapy as usual." Even though you can't put it in a bottle, prescribe it and market it, it remains a proven method.<br />
<br />paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-61674206251739487912011-06-24T13:34:00.003-07:002022-09-14T14:25:23.861-07:00When Leadership Fails: What seems to be the problem at Sacramento State?<i><b style="color: #20124d;">In the past few years, <span style="color: black;"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/sacstate" style="color: black;">Sac State</a> has spent and wasted well over one million dollars on lawsuits that could easily have been avoided</b></i>. These are text book examples of what it costs when management ignores workplace harassment. It’s a text book example of what happens when leadership fails. <br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #20124d;">The most recent case to hit the news </span></b>(<i><a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B3mXh6fH0AAIUjdiU2c2eTFTQkM4dS1ndzE1WEk3UQ">see story</a></i>)<b><span style="color: #20124d;"> has actually been going on since 2005. </span></b> After spending money on four investigations and who knows how much in attorney fees, the campus ended up paying $900,000 to three female professors. <b style="color: #20124d;">And it’s not over yet.</b><br />
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It’s an issue that could have been put to rest five years ago at hardly any cost at all. You have to wonder if It was anything other than administrative incompetence that has kept it going. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">What happened is</span></b> <b style="color: #20124d;">that</b> three female professors reported that students had come to them with complaints about <b><span style="color: #20124d;">Professor Wilfrido Corral. He was sexually harassing students.</span></b> The three professors reported the complaints, as required, and four students came forward. <b style="color: #20124d;">An investigation found their complaints to be valid, and one student got a $15,000 settlement from the University.</b>
<b style="color: #20124d;">But things got ugly </b>after the the three professors complained. As described by campus attorney Dawn Theodora: "<i><b><span style="color: #20124d;">Corral basically went on a vendetta against them … </span></b><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="color: black;">they were just doing their jobs.</span></span></i><span style="color: black;">”</span> <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">So first we have harassment, and then we have retaliation</span></b>. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">And what did the campus Human Resource managers do</span></b> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">about Professor Will Corral? Well, basically nothing.</span></b> They put a letter of reprimand in his personnel file (a letter that would later “disappear”) and they made him take the sexual harassment training that all staff are required to take anyway. <br />
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<div style="color: #20124d;">
<b>The legal documents suggest that a turning point came in August of 2006. </b></div>
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Before any of the other faculty knew about the investigation or the findings, Corral was elected to be the new Department Chair. Corral took the reins early and started retaliating against the whistle blowers. And then in August, he was seated as Chair. <br />
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The women didn’t seem to understand why someone who preys on students and retaliates against whistle blowers would be seated as a Department Chair. Why would the campus allow someone like that to maintain a position of power? They complained even more when he took control. <br />
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<div style="color: #20124d;">
<b>Handling what had now become an ugly affair were Human Resources Vice President David Wagner and Associate Vice President Kent Porter. On the organizational chart, they sit right below President Alex Gonzales. </b></div>
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Porter woud later tell an investigator that they spoke to the woman who complained the loudest. They were: “<i>trying to explain … that human resources had taken the appropriate action against Corral.</i>” He thought <i>the woman was just “not letting it go.”</i> <br />
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Dave Wagner told the investigator that maybe she didn’t know about the letter of reprimand, and so <i>she “probably felt that nothing was done.</i>” Wagner said that “<i>she views everything as black and white</i>” <i>and “probably believes that Corral should have been fired.”</i> <br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">Obviously, he should have been fired, perhaps maybe just to protect students.</b> And if for some reason he wasn’t to be fired, why would they grant him a perch from which to prey? <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">Peter Lau, the campus Affirmative Action Officer met with Wagner and Porter about this</span></b>. Lau told the investigator that there was “<i>no policy in place that would allow them to remove him or otherwise prevent him from taking the Chair position.</i>” So it was like <b style="color: #20124d;">they didn’t know what to do</b>. <br />
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Porter was in the meeting when the decision was made, but in discussing it later, <i>he “could not recall who was responsible for making the decision to allow Corral to assume the Chair.</i>”<br />
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Obviously, the decision was the responsibility of Dave Wagner, the Vice President for Human Resources, He was in the meeting as the high man on the organizational chart. <b><span style="color: #20124d;">Referring to the fact that Carrol had sexually harassed students, Wagner later recalled that “<i>it was difficult to determine if the conduct by Corral was unwelcomed.</i>” </span></b><br />
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Maybe it’s true that the two students who accepted Corral’s dinner invitation welcomed the invitation. But it is hard to imagine that they wanted him to hit on them, or talk about being a “<i>sex addict</i>” or to “<i>talk about doing it doggy style.</i>” It is certain that they did not welcome that as dinner talk. The complaints from the students were well founded. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">Years went on and it wasn’t resolved and just got worse.</span></b> Corral would retaliate and the women would complain and there would be investigations and nothing would change. There was mediation and there were meetings with the Provost, Joe Sheley (the other No. 2 man on campus). <b><span style="color: #20124d;">Eventually, two of the professors who complained retired early, totally stressed out. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;"></span></b><br />
<div style="color: #20124d;">
<b>Why is this case still unsettled, even now in the Summer of 2011? It continues because of administrative incompetence. </b></div>
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The generous interpretation is that despite their positions, <b><span style="color: #20124d;">Sheley, Wagner and Porter</span></b> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">just didn’t get it</span></b>. They didn’t get that there was anything wrong or that these things just fester and don’t go away. Sheley later told the investigator that <i>he “does not believe anyone at the University overlooked the issues or concerns with respect to Corral.</i>” Perhaps not, but <b><span style="color: #20124d;">they</span></b> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">didn't seem to understand what it was that they were looking at. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">Wagner and Porter described the situation as an “<i>intradepartmental policy dispute</i>,” a “<i>personal dispute</i>,” and an “<i>interpersonal issue</i>.”</span></b> <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">It had apparently become that. It became personal</span></b>. The women were angry that their complaints had been ignored. They were in pain, it wouldn’t stop and there was some sporadic use of abusive language. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">But that wasn’t the problem</span></b>. <span style="color: black;">The problem was that there had been no remedy for the retaliation. It was no longer about the original complaint regarding the harassment of students, <span style="color: black;">now</span><b><span style="color: #20124d;"> it was about the fact that Corral had gone on the attack against the women</span></b> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">“</span><i style="color: #20124d;">who were just doing their jobs</i><span style="color: #20124d;">.”</span></b></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">Retaliation is illegal</span></b>, and juries treat retaliation more seriously than even harassment and discrimination claims.<br />
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Jurors tend to have a hard time when someone says that they were mistreated because of their status or who they are. The jurors think: “they treated everybody badly, it wasn’t because she was a woman.” On the other hand, in retaliation cases, jurors naturally understand when someone says they were mistreated because they complained. Most people are cautious about complaining, they know what can happen. And <b style="color: #20124d;">juries know that it’s not right and that people shouldn’t be bullied. </b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">The problem at Sac State is that <i>the campus treated the problem like it was “failure to communicate.” </i> <i>They treated it like the women were the problem</i></span></b> and that their complaints were about nothing more than the ordinary tribulations and minor annoyances that often take place at work and that all employees experience. <br />
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There is no general civility code for the American workplace. Skilled leadership and good judgment are required to to know when complaints are serious and how they should properly be handled. <b style="color: #20124d;">Sac State just didn’t get it, and the problem only got worse. </b><br />
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Eventually, the women sued, at a cost to the campus of at least a million dollars. The women got $900,000. The campus has defended that payment as having been made in good faith. <b><span style="color: #20124d;">The campus had to admit that the women deserved the money.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">As for Corral, he’s what’s keeping it going now.</span></b><br />
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Eventually, after years trying to avoid the problem, the campus had to actually fire him. So now he’s suing the campus. You can just wait to hear his attorney say: “in all these years, the campus never did anything … they didn’t think he did anything wrong.” <br />
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Campus attorney Christine D. Lovely said in a hearing that he was fired for “immoral and unprofessional conduct,” which is exactly what the women complained about in 2005. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">The problem at Sac State is that this is not an anomalous case.</span></b> <b><span style="color: #20124d;">It’s not something out of the ordinary. There is a case to be made that at Sac State, complaints about abuse are routinely ignored and that the behavior is tolerated or effectively condoned.</span></b> That is what seems to have happened in the case above and the generous interpretation is that it was the result of mismanagement and bad leadership. <br />
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In the past few years, the campus has had to settle other lawsuits that are eerily similar to this. They’ve settled with people who had the resources and the stamina to take the matter to Court. That’s public information. What is not public is how many people with valid complaints gave up. We also don’t know how many didn’t even bother to complain, knowing that nothing good would come of it? <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">There is a pattern here, or perhaps a few. If you read the cases, you can see in each one that with just a bit of good judgment and a bit of leadership courage, these matters could have been handled effectively at little or no cost. People wouldn’t have been troubled and the campus wouldn’t have done damage to itself. </span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #20124d;"><i></i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #20124d;"><i>What seems to be the problem?</i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #20124d;"><i><br /></i></span></b>
<i><span style="color: #274e13;"><b>Update: </b>this case settled later in 2011. Corral dropped his complaint and retired, or something</span>. </i><br />
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See: "<a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2010/04/when-leadership-fails.html#.Th3VpuCU_vg">When Leadership Fails</a>" for an account of another, similar case at Sac State.paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-78577415059235703882011-06-22T10:31:00.002-07:002022-09-11T11:53:28.094-07:00When it comes to psychological health, management just doesn't get it.<b style="color: #20124d;">When it comes to the psychological and mental health of workers, managers tend to think they are doing everything right. Employees would typically beg to differ. </b><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span><br />
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That is the implication of a new study released by the Canadian Conference Board and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2011/06/20/mental-health-workplace.html">reported in the Canadian press</a> (see source note caveat below). The report title was: Building Mentally Healthy Workplaces. <br />
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I haven't read the full report,* but the data look good. They surveyed over a thousand people and did a fair number of in-depth interviews. They surveyed almost 500 executive managers and slightly more workers.<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;"><i>Here is the big finding</i>: while 82% of managers said that their company "promotes" a psychologically healthy workplace, 70% of workers said they didn't. </b><br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">It's a huge disconnect in perceptions, and it makes you wonder if management ever really "gets it."</b><span style="color: #20124d;"> </span><br /><br />
Workers know when they are suffering from psychological health issues and they know what their organization did or did not do to help. Their perceptions can be trusted.<br />
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<a href="https://www.everydaypsychology.com/2008/08/is-your-boss-paying-attention-to-you.html">I have written before</a> about studies showing that managers typically do not pay enough attention to the people they supervise. They are usually too busy paying attention to the people above them, those who can affect their careers. This study is consistent with that observation, and in addition, <b style="color: #20124d;">it says that the managers aren't even aware of the problem. They apparently think everything is OK and that things are being well-handled.</b><br />
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Karla Thorpe, the lead author on the project told the press that <b style="color: #20124d;">"managers are actually very confident in their skills and abilities to help employees ... they say they're very comfortable having conversations with their staff" about personal concerns and difficulties. Most of the employees interviewed thought the opposite.</b> Most of them said that their supervisors don't know much about mental health issues or psychological difficulties. They don't talk to the workers and the workers are not comfortable talking to them. <br />
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For this study, "mental health issues" were broadly defined and included "ordinary" depression, stress and anxiety disorders. Some people surveyed had experienced significant mental illness. Whatever the case, it is certain that many of them were troubled because of workplace stress and that it was a productivity problem for most of them. When people are not healthy, they don't perform as well, even though it costs the same to employ them.<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">This is a fundamental issue with respect to organizational competence. </b><br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">Organizations invest in human talent and can't afford to waste it.</b> Ignoring the health of the worker goes right to the bottom line. In the workplace, psychological health is the big cost factor when it comes to safety and productivity. That is where the big money is lost or saved. <br />
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In Canada, just like in the U.S., the majority of those who can't work and have to take time off because of health concerns are taking time off on disability because of psychological problems. There are huge numbers of people who suffer work related psychological troubles in any given year. <br />
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Most managers believe that they are competently managing the well-being of their workers. Only 26% of workers would say that their supervisor "effectively manages mental health issues."<br />
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The importance and the cost to every organization is such that for a manager, this should be a fundamental competency, tending effectively to the human talent.<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">For the study's authors, the take away message is that an organization cannot afford to waste talent and that there are steps to be taken.</b> There are various ways organizations should be proactive in reducing the stigma, preventing hostility and retaliation, and providing support.<br />
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<i style="color: #20124d;"><b>The prescription is all good and sensible, but it doesn't go far enough.</b></i><br />
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Yes, people should be cared for effectively. Whether it is because of organizational values or just the bottom line concerns, companies have to assume some responsibility to help their workers.<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">It is not enough, however, to help them when they are troubled.</b> You need to help them when they are well and to keep them psychologically healthy. At least half of the time, when a worker is becoming emotionally disabled it's about something that's going on at work. It could also be something that is happening at home because of something gone bad at work.<br />
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<div style="color: #20124d;">
<i><b>The critical action step to be taken by an effective manager in a competent organization is to make certain that workplace stress factors are properly managed and resolved. </b></i></div>
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It's not about too much work or too many deadlines. It's about the things in the workplace that demoralize people and drain the satisfaction from work.<br />
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<b style="color: #20124d;">People suffer from work when they have complaints that no one will listen to or problems that no one will solve.</b> It's when they say to themselves, "why won't someone take care of this?!" that they start to go mad. People lose faith in the organization when management doesn't solve things or take care of stuff. People start to wonder if things will change and why they are working there. <br />
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<b><span style="color: #20124d;">People cannot deal with stress when it doesn't seem worth it, and that's when it costs the organization.</span></b> <br />
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The Canadian study supports the idea that <b><span style="color: #20124d;">a psychologically healthy workplace is good for business.</span></b> This is well known. <b style="color: #20124d;">What they have identified, however, is something more. It's a fundamental flaw in the business or organizational model. What they have shown is that management does not understand the problem, and even worse, they don't know that they don't understand it.</b> They don't know that they don't know what to do.<br />
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="color: black;">The report argues that organizations should do more to support workers who are hurt or harmed psychologically.</span></span><b style="color: #20124d;"> <i>I would argue that organizations should do more to keep them from harm. </i></b><i> </i><br />
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*There is a hefty fee to read the 74 page report. This article is based on the <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/press/newsrelease/11-06-20/Mental_Health_Stigma_Still_Pervades_Canadian_Workplaces.aspx">press released summary</a> from the Canadian business think tank. <br />
<br />paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-91757963588426999912011-06-20T08:47:00.001-07:002022-09-11T11:35:43.745-07:00The DSM: more like the Boy Scout Handbook than the Bible<i><b><span style="color: #444444;">The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is being revised.</span></b></i> Often described as the psychiatric bible, there are plans for the DSM to be released in a 5th Edition. It is a work in progress.<br />
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Naturally, people ask: "if it's like a bible, why would it need to be revised?" And then they wonder: "Am I suddenly going to be cured or suddenly declared mentally ill?"<br /><br />
Years ago, psychiatry declared that no one was neurotic anymore. For the DSM-5, they are planning to eliminate any reference to hysteria, which means they will finally get Freud completely out of the consulting room.<br />
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Do you tend to get angry and upset, more so than most people? Then you might soon be suffering from "temper dysregulation disorder." If your kid is troubled or disturbed, there will be a new label for that, something other than the catch-all phrase, "bipolar." If you lose interest in sex and can't get started, there is a diagnosis for that too.<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: #444444;">People in the professions argue about whether and how the DSM should be revised.</span></b></i><br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b>There is a concern that if any changes are made, it will suggest that they didn't get the science correct the last time around.</b></span> That uncertainty could cast doubt on the entire psychiatric enterprise. Psychiatry has gotten it wrong before, most famously when it classified homosexuality as a mental illness just waiting for a cure. This adding and deleting of disorders will be the part of the argument that will get the most attention in the press.<br />
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For psychiatry, there is no end of critics. For the field in general, there is no end to the "alternative theories." The alternative "paths" to health and understanding range from the plausible to the fantastic. <i><b><span style="color: #444444;">The fear is that change could sow doubt and confusion</span></b></i><span style="color: #20124d;">.</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #444444;">There is also a concern about the fact that the DSM is meant to represent consensus judgment. In other words, it is being done "by committee."</span></b> That would perhaps be OK if everyone agreed, like in the way that everyone agrees about the symptoms of a cold or a heart attack.<br />
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In the case of the DSM-5, there is deep disagreement at a number of levels, including at the level of basic measurement. Part of the argument has to do with whether or not we are looking at categories of disturbance (like pigeonholes) or dimensions of pathology, with each person's troubles being made up of different, individual elements.<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: #444444;">The stakes in this process are high.</span></b></i><br />
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The last time the DSM was revised, the committee said that kids could catch bipolar too, just like adults. <b><span style="color: #444444;">In response, there are now many more "bipolar" kids taking medications.</span></b> All drugs that alter mood or mind have risks, and those risks can be hard to judge in the case of a growing brain and a developing mind. <br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b>Yes, some kids need medications. But medications have become too handy as the cure for everything<i>.</i></b></span> That is a risk factor in itself, especially when it results in a failure to also seek psychotherapy. No child on meds should be without a therapist, period.<br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b>Lurking in the background of the DSM revision process is the pharmaceutical industry</b></span>. Markets may open or close for them. Messages may need to be changed. They do sell drugs, don't they? Suspicions about profit motives have already infected the debate about how we diagnose.<br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i>To those in the intellectual leadership of psychiatry, a branch of medicine, the stakes have to do with the very definition of mental life.</i></b></span><br />
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NIMH (the National Institute of Mental Health) is intent on defining everything mental, emotional, and behavioral as "clinical neuroscience," like a collection of circuits and chips in our brains. <b><span style="color: #444444;">From the definition of human psychology, the goal is to remove thoughts and ideas, attitudes and perceptions, and learning and development. Actually, the goal is to explain the psychological in terms of the biological hardware.</span></b><br />
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This movement began in earnest in the 1990's, a period that was officially dubbed the "Decade of the Brain." Many believed that the focus on the brain was leading to a mindless psychiatry. That is perhaps the key problem presented for psychiatry in formulating a new diagnostic manual. There is absolutely no way to get the science of mental life correct if the first step is to eliminate reference to the mental. It's not just neuroscience. It's also psychology.<br />
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<i><span style="color: #444444;"><b>In considering the controversy surrounding the diagnostic changes, we really have to ask: what is the purpose of the manual?</b></span></i><br />
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There is in fact a need for complex, rigorous, narrow and detailed criteria for research purposes. But in clinical work, the goal of understanding and describing the individual is often better accomplished by broader categories, unique qualifiers and unique symptom descriptions. In clinical work, the ultimate objective is to arrive at a diagnostic formulation that fits the individual patient and that provides a way to plan for treatment. You want to understand and describe the person, not the pigeonhole. <br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b><i>In the end, I expect that the DSM-5 will be a useful guide. I think it will be like the Boy Scout Handbook</i></b>.</span><br />
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It will not be written in stone and it will not tell you what do in every unique and specific situation. It will guide us through many diagnostic dilemmas and it will provide fundamental data about how those people have come to be troubled and how they are having difficulties in life. <br />
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<span style="color: #444444;"><b>One of the things I remember best from my Boy Scout Handbook was how to treat a snake bite</b></span><span style="color: #20124d;">.</span> They wanted you to sterilize a knife, apply a tourniquet, cut open the victim and use the snake bite suction cup from your snake bite first aid kit to suck out the poisonous venom.<br />
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That advice has long since changed, and for good reason. It was like field surgery.<br />
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There is no reason that the DSM should not change as well.paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-48522943829470743702010-09-01T23:49:00.002-07:002023-07-10T16:26:28.470-07:00The campus safety threat they don't tell you aboutColleges and Universities are required by law (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clery_Act">Clery Act</a>) to disclose campus security policies and crime statistics. This information may provide parents with some measure of comfort when sending children off to college, but knowing the odds of your child becoming a crime statistic does not mean you should assume that your child is safe. Hazards still remain, and as I have argued in my comments about "<a href="https://www.everydaypsychology.com/2008/08/helicopter-parents-disturbing-trend-or.html">helicopter parents</a>," as a parent you need to help your child understand and cope with the risks. <br />
<br />
More than 25% of students drop out before completing their freshman year in college. Stress and depression are common reasons.<br />
<br />
A young college student will be confronted by many stress factors. Many of these actually represent challenges to be faced.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #000066;">
<i><b>But there are two stress factors that are matters of safety and not just something for a young adult to deal with on their own: sexual harassment and bullying.</b></i></div><br />
A study published in 2005 by the AAUW (American Association of University Women) found that almost two thirds (over 60%) of college students have been subjected to some form of unwanted behavior that the students themselves thought was a form of sexual harassment.<br />
<br />
From that two thirds, if you take out those who complained about jokes, gestures and looks they found disturbing, there are still 28% (almost a third) who have suffered some type of "serious" assault.<br />
<br />
The study notes that some forms of assault are "relatively" uncommon. For example, "only" 11% reported having been cornered, blocked or followed in a sexual way, and "only" 6% had been been encouraged to do something sexual in exchange for a better grade or a recommendation. But what the authors noted is that even when you are talking about "only" 6% or 11%, that means there is a huge number of actual cases and incidents.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Are students troubled and disturbed by these experiences? Yes.</b> Except in the case of jokes and gestures, almost all of the students said that these experiences are upsetting.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Do they typically report these events to campus authorities or administrators? No.</b> Only 7% will tell a campus employee.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Is this just a matter of students harassing other students? No.</b> The AAUW report concluded that while it is much more likely that students will suffer at the hands of other students, <b style="color: #000066;">7% report having been harassed by professors.</b><br />
<br />
Again, 7% is not a big number in relative terms (according to the report), but it is huge for those who are the victims. And it is an exceedingly huge number if you even just think about it for a moment. If 7% of students say that they were sexually harassed by a professor, that's 70 out of 1000 or seven hundred students on a 10,000 student campus.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #000066;">
<b>Students surveyed for the AAUW study said that they were particularly distressed when the perpetrator was a faculty member. </b><span style="color: black;">Not only does it involve a betrayal of trust, but it also generates a range of fears relating to academic progress and success.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">Obviously, you don't want to scare and alarm your children, and you don't want to add this to the list of things that keep you awake at night when your they go off to school. But <b style="color: #000066;">you want to discuss this with your children. </b></span><br />
<div style="color: #000066;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<span style="color: black;"><b style="color: #000066;">It's not that difficult.</b> All they really need to know is what they should have learned in high school, if they had been paying attention:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: black;">if it makes them uncomfortable, they don't have to put up with it;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: black;">sexual harassment could come from another student, or it could come from a professor;</span></li>
<li><span style="color: black;">if it happens, they need to tell someone and talk about it. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: black;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: black;"> </span></div>
<hr />
<span class="fullpost"><span class="fullpost">Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.</span></span><br />
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<span class="fullpost"><span class="fullpost"></span></span>paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-82295239523478637992010-09-01T16:53:00.000-07:002016-08-25T15:37:42.712-07:00The thin line between sanity and the safety netDriving to the post office today, I noticed that one of our neighborhood schizophrenics was out on the sidewalk, but not in her usual spot. A very slight and petite woman, her clothing is usually augmented with multiple plastic grocery bags. She carries many more such bags with her, apparently having failed to obtain a grocery cart. She typically lays out multiple scraps of paper on the sidewalk and in the gutter. Driving by, you can see that they are covered with her writings, which are not in an English character script. Sometimes she holds up a scrap or two of paper for display while talking to cars or whomever, or to no one at all.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
It’s an ordinarily sad sight, but she appears in no distress. She does not have the sun-leathered skin or the grime encrusted clothing of a homeless person.<br />
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Today, I felt there was reason to worry. She was in the shade, but it was still just the noon hour in Sacramento and the thermometer was already close to 100. <br />
<br />
On my way back, she was in the middle of the street with her plastic bags strewn about. It’s a four lane street with a turn lane in the center. A man was near her, gesturing for her to return to the sidewalk while speaking on his phone, presumably calling 911. There was nothing more to be done. Either she would find her way back to the sidewalk or the Sheriff’s cruiser would soon arrive.<br />
<br />
I had another stop to make. When I came out, she was out of traffic and back in her usual spot, on the corner in the sun. I wondered how she could tolerate the heat while encased in plastic.<br />
<br />
The woman is obviously not sane (I’m not using that term in its legal sense). Had the Sheriff arrived, there is a good chance she would have ended up in the back of the patrol car. It would be nice to think that she would then get a ride to County Mental Health to enjoy a 72 hour respite from her daily toils.<br />
<br />
That is not, however, what would have happened. Our clinics are more or less closed. Those people still capable of getting help on their own are going to the hospital emergency room. The other day in Sacramento, two such patients were put together in the same room to wait, and there was a fight or an assault or whatever.<br />
<br />
Those who are incapable of seeking treatment on their own are now taken to Jail. They are always good for some misdemeanor charge that can be dismissed after they have been seen by the Jail Psych service. But if they struggle, resist or cause problems while being “arrested,” there is inevitably a more serious charge to keep them in Jail and to be resolved by the Courts.<br />
<br />
Once that person is in Jail, there is a good chance that I will be appointed to see them. No, my task as a psychologist will not be to help them. I will be paid to determine whether or not they are competent or sane enough to navigate the Court system. Often, that’s not an issue. But there are a lot of times when these people can’t find their way out the door, even when it’s opened for their release.<br />
<br />
Today, in too many parts of California, there is no fine line between sanity and the safety net because there just is no safety net there at all. <br />
<br />
We let preventable problems get worse and then deal with them where it costs the most.<br />
<br />
When we fail to spend on fundamental quality of life services like mental health (and the list goes on), it just costs us more in the long run. The way I think about it, if your roof has a hole in it, you don’t save any money by letting the rain come in.<br />
<br />
The County can’t spend and the State can’t spend because they don’t have any money.<br />
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The Republican Party in California says that there will be no new taxes of any kind. They actually speak for a lot of people, and because of the vote requirements for a budget, they can block almost anything.<br />
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This is not good. It is not good to have a mentally incapable woman at risk for entering the criminal justice system only because she wasn’t given a bit of psychological help when it was needed.<br />
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For a community, it is a moral as well as a practical failure. In a community, if your safety net has a hole in it, you don’t save money by letting people fall through. You would have to be insane to think that you would.<br />
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People don’t like taxes? They don’t like fees? They don’t want to spend money?<br />
<br />
We’re beyond the point of no choice. Things need to be fixed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
<hr />
paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11837009.post-90443747304810034802010-04-22T23:55:00.000-07:002016-08-25T15:38:21.770-07:00When Leadership FailsAbout twenty years ago at Sacramento State (California State University, Sacramento: CSUS), the campus administration learned that an engineering professor had been harassing a recent graduate in a very overt manner. The male professor had developed a "friendly" relationship with a heterosexual male student and was upset when the kid realized he was being "chickenhawked" (the professor was making a sexual advance). The alum told the professor that they would no longer be friends and the professor began stalking him and trying to ruin his career.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<a href="http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career/"><span style="color: black;">Cici</span></a> (my wife, and the Director of Career Services in the College of Engineering and Computer Science) got involved when the alum's employer complained that Professor Miroslav Markovic was engaging in some rather strange and bizarre behavior. Actually, the behavior was scary and traumatic. <br />
<br />
The campus administration was fully informed about the situation and basically did nothing. As it would become known later, this was not the first time that Professor Markovic had tried to "hook up" with young male students, and it would not be the last. Markovic was a tenured professor and he was therefore "protected" or "tolerated." No warning was ever given to other students.<br />
<br />
In subsequent years, there would be many other complaints about Markovic. From off-campus, employers wanting to contribute to the campus development complained about strange and potentially threatening emails he sent. Women and minorities complained about how he treated them in class. There was an incident in which he went in to a rage and destroyed projects students had built. From off-campus, there were more reports about him "doing it again," trying to develop inappropriate relationships with young men.<br />
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And then there were the reports about his having assaulted staff members and having threatened to shoot others. <br />
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Cici got involved because students and employers came to her with their complaints. She also complained when Markovic called her a "bitch," and when he threatened her and when he assaulted her. She complained about him a lot during the past 15 years or so because the campus taught her that these are matters that <i>must</i> be reported. She also complained because she thought the campus would do something, that the leaders would lead, and because she wanted to protect her students.<br />
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While all of this was going on, Cici was also trying on a regular basis to get reclassified. She wasn't being paid what the men were being paid to do similar work. She actually had been promoted once, many years ago when she founded the Career Service office in engineering. But that promotion was taken away when she returned from maternity leave.<br />
<br />
Now it could be that Cici was never promoted like the men simply because of gender discrimination. It certainly wasn't because she was less productive as an employee. Like the men who did similar work, she taught classes and counseled students. but she also created an <a href="http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career/">entire program</a> of services. <br />
<br />
The other possibility was that she was held back in retaliation for being a "whistle blower." That's how the <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/22/2696719/the-public-eye-csus-settles-whistle.html">Sacramento Bee</a> would describe it.<br />
<br />
In the Fall of 2008, Cici hired an attorney and in August of 2009, she sued Sac State. She was pushed her over the edge when Markovic threatened to shoot a pregnant staff member. She reported this to Kent Porter, the Vice President of Human Resources, and he did absolutely nothing. He didn't investigate, take action or warn staff. <br />
<br />
Nine months before she filed the suit, her attorney wrote the campus and demanded that they do something about Markovic. President Alex Gonzales never responded to that letter, but the campus did hire attorneys to investigate. <b>The investigation confirmed much of what Cici said about Markovic, but until the lawsuit was filed, the campus hid the reports.</b> <br />
<br />
<div style="color: #000066;">
<b>The leadership failure in this case went up and down the line, from the Dean of Engineering Emir Macari, through the head of Human Relations, David Wagner, and to the President himself. Cici was screaming about a hostile work environment and nobody would lift a finger to either acknowledge it, resolve it or simply do something to avoid an embarrassing lawsuit.</b></div>
<br />
After Cici filed the lawsuit, Markovic immediately "retired." The campus Affirmative Action Officer also retired in short order, right after he wrote a letter confirming that Cici had in fact been subjected to a hostile work environment. He had the investigation reports. <br />
<br />
Right after she filed the lawsuit, Cici was told that she could no longer teach any of the classes that she had been teaching for 25 years. The campus said it was a union issue: she wasn't classified properly to do the job she had been doing all those years. <br />
<br />
This looked like more retaliation, despite what the campus said. The irony is that for no good reason at all, the campus shut down a program designed to help students get jobs on graduation - they shut it down right in the middle of the worst recession in generations. Accreditation teams have described Cici's career program as "a model for the nation."<br />
<br />
In January of 2010, after Cici had been off work for five months (spending much of her time relieving stress with Yoga classes), the campus finally settled. You can read about the settlement in the <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/22/2696719/the-public-eye-csus-settles-whistle.html">Sacramento
Bee</a>.<br />
<br />
Clearly, in the end, Cici "won." She got rid of the professor, received a meaningful promotion and obtained a settlement that was enough to cover her costs. The un-reimbursed psychic toll was tremendous, but Cici is back at work, doing what she loves to do. She has received nothing but positive support for what she did, and there was a lot of support. <br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Somebody had to do something and the leadership on campus failed completely.</b> It cost them some money, but more importantly, they squandered their status. It was all completely preventable.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Did Sac State learn anything?</b> <i>Nah ...</i><br />
<br />
Human Resources VP Kent Porter handled the settlement negotiations for the campus, and he was just plain pissy about it. The campus position was that Cici was just an "overzealous" employee, a nuisance to be dealt with.<br />
<br />
And after it looked like it was over, Markovic was invited back to campus to enjoy the privileges of a retired professor, an "honored" professor emeritus. Human Resources told the IT technicians in Engineering that Markovic would be coming to campus to have his computer fixed. The day he was scheduled to arrive, three employees took the day off because they didn't want to see him again and didn't want to have to fix his computer. They were among those who had been threatened by him.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">Consider that for a moment.</b> The leadership knows that this guy created all kinds of turmoil. They have investigative reports saying that people are afraid of him. They know that he creates stress and discomfort for other staff. And what do they do? They ignore the well-being of their workers and treat him like he's done nothing wrong. <i><b style="color: #000066;">Markovic threatened to shoot people on campus!</b> </i>What's not to get about that?<br />
<br />
I don't think he will be returning to campus. After the lawsuit was filed, Markovic kind of disappeared for a while. He was named in the suit but couldn't be found to be served. The day he showed up on campus again, the process server was sitting there waiting for him. <br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">There's just a bit more to the story.</b> After Cici was back at work, she was speaking with an employer. He told her that he had recently spoken to Dean Emir Macari and that she should apologize to him. Obviously, her boss Macari was bad mouthing her in the community.<br />
<br />
Cici complained to the head of Human Relations, Vice President David Wagner. When she settled the lawsuit, the campus insisted that no party could speak ill of the other. She also complained about Markovic being invited back to campus.<br />
<br />
Dave Wagner's response? Markovic had a right to be on campus. Essentially, to hell with the well-being of the employees.<br />
<br />
About the bad mouthing? Well, Dave Wagner basically just noted that she had, after all, sued them and publicly so.<br />
<br />
What should Cici have expected? In the end, she should have expected nothing more from the leadership at Sacramento State than she had ever seen in the past.<br />
<br />
<b style="color: #000066;">The "leaders" at Sacramento State seemed to have learned nothing, so what do we learn?</b><br />
This is a companion piece to three
of my other posts. I think this story illustrates: that employers often don't pay attention to their employees; that it makes no sense to talk about work related stress unless we talk about the organizational causes; that rather than "treating" those who are affected, we need to change the environment; and that even when employees suffer hostile work situations, and even when they complain, "leaders" often fail to get it. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
Here are my thoughts on those topics: <br />
<br />
<a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2008/08/is-your-boss-paying-attention-to-you.html">Is
your boss paying attention to you?</a><br />
<a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2009/09/burnt-out-on-stress-management-its-time.html">Burnt-out
on stress management? It's time to change the organization</a>.<br />
<a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2009/09/workplace-stress-does-anyone-hear.html">Workplace
stress: Does anyone hear the workers screaming in their cubicles?</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<hr />
This is a shorter and final version of an article I posted some time ago, while this was all in play. The earlier version provides more detail and basically tells the whole story. If you are interested, it is still posted <a href="http://everydaypsychology.com/2009/09/when-leadership-fails-short-story-about.html">here</a>. Additional materials, including the news stories and the 200 page lawsuit can be found <a href="http://psyris.com/cici/?var=cici">here</a>. <br />
<hr />
Copyright, Paul G. Mattiuzzi, Ph.D.<br />
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paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d.http://www.blogger.com/profile/03850791138316889908noreply@blogger.com