Category Archives: Togetherness

A depressing financial justification

December 30, 2012 – 11:18 am

One of the most controversial changes to the recently finalised DSM-5 diagnostic manual was the removal of the ‘bereavement exclusion’ from the diagnosis of depression – meaning that someone could be diagnosed as depressed even if they’ve just lost a loved on The Washington Post has been investigating the financial ties of those on the […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News | Comments (7)

A smoother flow

December 10, 2012 – 6:31 pm

BBC Radio 1Xtra has just broadcast a fantastic programme about the rapper Scorzayzee who disappeared from the UK scene after, as it turned out, experiencing psychosis and being diagnosed with schizophrenia. It’s a brilliant piece that not only tells the story of Scorzayzee but also cheekily tackles mental health in men – something which is […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in News | Comments (1)

Relax ladies, I’m a scientist

December 2, 2012 – 11:34 am

A while ago I wrote a column in The Psychologist on why psychologists don’t do participant observation research – a type of data gathering where you immerse yourself in the activities of those you want to study. In response, psychologist James Hartley wrote in and mentioned a remarkable study from 1938 where researchers hid under […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Comments (10)

The grief problem

December 2, 2012 – 10:33 am

I’ve got an article in The Observer about the sad history of how psychologists have misunderstood grief and why it turns out to be much more individual than traditional theories have suggested. As well as the individual variations, it also riffs on the massive diversity of cultural grief and mourning practices. At the beginning of […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory | Comments (2)

The relative consuming disease

November 20, 2012 – 9:55 pm

The Global Mail has an amazing story about how the last treks to find cases of kuru – a cannabalism-related brain disease – have been completed. Kuru was passed on by eating the brains of dead relatives – a long finished tradition of the Fore people in Papua New Guinea – and it infected new […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain, Remembering | Comments (2)

Sex taboos: a brief and incomplete tour

November 18, 2012 – 4:47 pm

Cultures around the world have restrictions or prohibitions on when sex is allowed which turn out to be quite amazing in their diversity. This is a fascinating section on the wide world of sex taboos from the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: In some societies, sexual activity is prohibited during certain times of day. The […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (6)

A cultural understanding of autism

November 3, 2012 – 10:44 pm

Nature has a fascinating article on the diagnosis of autism and how it clashes with cultures that have different forms of everyday social interaction and different standards for how children should behave. In rural South Africa, young children may look at adults’ faces while having a conversation, but they don’t usually make direct eye contact […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (3)

A brief reheating of the refrigerator mother

October 28, 2012 – 3:00 pm

The Telegraph has a well-intentioned but confused article about how child neglect affects the brain and what can be done about it. What’s the difference between these two brains? asks The Telegraph. “The primary cause of the extraordinary difference between the brains of these two three-year-old children,” says the journalist, “is the way they were […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (3)

Hark! What light through yonder neuron breaks

October 26, 2012 – 8:08 pm

An unintentionally funny first line from a new study on the neuroscience of love. The lifetime prevalence of romantic love is extremely high, as romantic love strikes nearly 100% of the people at one or more times during their life. As a comparison, the lifetime prevalence of experiencing any mental disorder is “only” 46.4% (National […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

The neuroscience of sexual attractions

October 24, 2012 – 8:41 pm

A recent edition of radio programme KERA Think has a fantastic discussion on development and the neuroscience of sexual attraction in its many forms. The programme is a discussion with Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist who raised a lot of eyebrows by finding differences in the brain structure of gay and straight men in a 1991 […]

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

Come hell or high water

October 7, 2012 – 8:58 pm

The New York Times has an article on New York’s suicide cops who are tasked with talking down potential ‘jumpers’. If you want to read something that’ll restore your hope in humanity, give this article ten minutes of your time. In Midtown Manhattan or the financial district, for instance, pedestrians are more likely to yell, […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

I’m just here for the research

October 1, 2012 – 10:01 pm

My latest Beyond Boundaries column for The Psychologist asks why psychologists don’t immerse themselves in the lives of people they study and whether sociologists think we’re wimps. Plus a bonus question about why strip clubs are so frequently researched. Sociologists must think we’re wusses. While we’re handing out questionnaires, scanning people in labs or measuring […]

By vaughanbell | Comments (5)

Does social psychology have a prejudice problem?

September 29, 2012 – 5:36 pm

The Weekly Standard has a scorching article that takes ‘liberal psychopundits’ to task for suggesting that science supports their view that conservatives are ‘heartless and stupid’. It comes on the heels of a new study that found that social psychology professors were more likely to be liberal (no surprise there) but rather more shockingly were […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Reasoning | Comments (8)

Artist treats psychiatric hospital stay as art residency

September 29, 2012 – 1:54 pm

Claude Heiland-Allen is an artist who specialises in mathematical, algorithmic and science-based art. When he was recently admitted to a psychiatric hospital he decided to treat his stay “as an artist-in-residence opportunity” – producing fractal images by freehand drawings. You can see some of the amazing work on his website. He explains the background to […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Integrating | Leave a Comment

The Lancet, [temporarily] seized by irony

September 29, 2012 – 1:02 pm

The Lancet has just a launched a special collection on how epilepsy is a global health problem particularly in lower-income countries. According to several of the articles, one of the key problems that drives the medical neglect of people with epilepsy is a lack of accurate information about the condition for health professionals and the […]

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

Growing up in Broadmoor

September 27, 2012 – 8:34 pm

Novelist Patrick McGrath talks about his childhood as the son of a psychiatrist growing up in the grounds of Broadmoor – one of Britain’s highest security psychiatric hospitals – in an article for Intelligent Life. Broadmoor Hospital has a special and undeserved place in the British psyche – stereotyped as ‘the real-life equivalent of Arkham […]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Leave a Comment
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,606 other followers