Category Archives: Togetherness

The evolution of London street gangs

April 5, 2012 – 8:47 am

A fascinating article in the journal Crime and Delinquency tracks the evolution of London gangs from their ‘boys on the street’ beginnings to organised crime syndicates. Sociologist James Densley has clearly spent a lot of time talking to gang members of the streets of London and has gained an intimate insight into how the organisations [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

The complex motivations for self-harm

April 4, 2012 – 9:54 am

If you ask the average person in the street why some people cut themselves you’ll get the answer that they’re trying to ‘get attention’ which is a common but unhelpful stereotype. The reality is that motivations for self-harming are complex. Some people find it helps control their intense moods by externalising the pain, other are [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (11)

Emperors, clothes, money

April 2, 2012 – 8:38 pm

BBC Radio 4′s documentary series Analysis has a fascinating programme that explores the little-asked question ‘What is Money?’ – and the answer turns out to be scarily psychological. In fact, the definition is very close to William Gibson’s description of cyberspace as a “mass consensual hallucination” because money relies on us to believe in it [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (4)

On the challenges of studying suicide

March 30, 2012 – 10:51 am

Nature has an important article on why virtually no-one is trying to develop treatments to prevent suicide because research with such high-risk patients is almost impossible to get approved. Most psychiatric drug trials today—the majority of which are industry sponsored—exclude anyone expressing thoughts of suicide. This is for ethical as well as practical reasons: physicians [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (7)

A bipolar expedition

March 29, 2012 – 4:37 pm

In 2008, The Lancet published an amazing article on the ‘psychological effects of polar expeditions’ that contains a potted history of artic madness. Unfortunately, the paper is locked, or shall we say, frozen, behind a paywall, although this snippet on the history of mental health problems on artic expeditions makes for quite surprising reading. Accounts [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Leave a Comment

Bring the love

March 27, 2012 – 4:10 pm

The world of art, neuroscience and, er… competitive affection, collide in a delightful film about a love competition held in an fMRI scanner. The piece is by film-maker Brent Hoff who seems to be making a series of films based on the idea of emotion competitions. In this film, competitors are asked to ‘love someone [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (1)

Wishful resilience

March 24, 2012 – 9:52 am

The New York Times has an extended article that uncritically dicusses a $125 million US Military programme currently designed to increase resilience against mental illness. If you’re interested in the effects and treatment of psychological trauma, it’s always worth keeping tabs on what the military are doing. The concept of trauma has largely been driven [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (11)

Post-sex psychology

March 15, 2012 – 7:22 pm

Slate has an article covering the growing research on post-sex behaviour – what we do after we’ve got it on and what it might mean. To be honest, I had no idea that anyone was studying what people do after sex but it sounds like the science is well underway. Counter to popular opinion, a [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

Attractive people less shallow

March 13, 2012 – 7:13 pm

I’ve just found a disappointing study from the European Journal of Psychology that found that physically attractive people are more likely to be psychologically balanced and accepting than the rest of us. The study asked 119 participants to complete the Personal Orientation Inventory, a measure of psychological characteristics such as self-acceptance, spontaneity and self-actualisation, while [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (12)

Filming the rabbit hole

February 27, 2012 – 7:59 pm

I’ve just managed to watch a few editions of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia, an online documentary series about mind altering drugs, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the programmes. If you think hearing about other people’s drug experiences is about as interesting as watching someone staring at the wallpaper, you’ll be pleased to hear that [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (1)

The mind is a guess

February 22, 2012 – 11:50 pm

My recent Beyond Boundaries column for the latest issue of The Psychologist explores how the idea of the ‘mind’ as a single distinct concept is an assumption that many cultures don’t share. I’d like to talk about people who don’t have minds. This isn’t going to be one of those ingenious philosophy arguments where I [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (7)

Moments of the self

February 20, 2012 – 1:15 am

A study just published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences gives a wonderful example of the little recognised complexity of epileptic seizures. The article describes three cases of people who take their clothes off during seizures and discusses the potential legal consequences of engaging in such behaviour when it was caused by epilepsy. However ‘Case [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Leave a Comment

A journey through schizophrenia science

February 16, 2012 – 12:49 am

BBC Radio 4′s The Life Scientific recently profiled psychiatrist, schizophrenia researcher and stand-up chap, Robin Murray, who talks about how his understanding of the condition has drastically changed over the years. It’s a fascinating journey through how our theories about the mental illness, most associated with having delusions and hallucinations, has evolved through time – [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Comments (4)

Of both lovers and epilepsy

February 14, 2012 – 12:53 am

Saint Valentine is the patron saint of both lovers and epilepsy – sadly, a little known fact. There is one wonderful example of this divine coupling, however, where the passionate saint appears alongside EEG traces on 1998 postage stamp from Italy. This description is from a brief 2003 article from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (1)

Violence and delusional pets

February 12, 2012 – 8:43 pm

I’ve just read a striking article recounting cases of violence associated with delusions about household pets. Although the academic paper is locked, a copy is available online as a pdf. The curious study was published in a 1987 edition of Behavioral Sciences and the Law and includes three extended case studies of defendants charged with [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (6)

Individual ecstasies: the revelatory experience conference

February 12, 2012 – 6:52 pm

On March 23rd London will host a unique conference on the neuroscience, psychiatry and interpretation of revelatory visionary experiences. It’s been put together by Quinton Deeley from our research group at the Institute of Psychiatry and brings together cognitive neuroscientists, anthropologists, religious studies scholars, psychologists and psychiatrists to discuss different ways of understanding ‘revelatory experiences’. [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain, Theory | Comments (10)
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 706 other followers