The mental-health pandemic pummeling young people doesn’t get the headlines Covid does. Even last fall when the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health, warning of “soaring rates” of depression, anxiety, and loneliness, … [Read more...] about Inner Conflict’s Role in Child Suicide
Guilt and Shame
Access the Genius Within
Genius is ours for the taking if we know where to look. Just ask three geniuses: Vladimir Nabokov, Immanuel Kant, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. While these guys were natural-born geniuses, a capacity for genius is available to everyday people. Nabokov, the novelist, said … [Read more...] about Access the Genius Within
Guilt: A Favorite Way to Suffer
Is guilt our favorite way to suffer? I think it is. Shame, fear, and anxiety might be more intense as torments go, but guilt (life’s “fitful fever”—Shakespeare) is the emotional hotspot that flares up most frequently in the backwoods of human nature. And it doesn’t take … [Read more...] about Guilt: A Favorite Way to Suffer
An Insightful Case of Self-Injury
It’s worrisome and disheartening to realize just how many people around the world regularly engage in self-injury or self-harm. They cut or burn their skin, pull their hair, scratch and interfere with wound healing, bang or hit the body, or swallow sharp objects or toxic … [Read more...] about An Insightful Case of Self-Injury
Hidden Dynamics of Racism
News commentators have been trying to figure out what motivated a group of white University of Oklahoma students on an outing earlier this month to sing a racist chant laden with anti-black slurs and a reference to lynching. The episode made national headlines after it was … [Read more...] about Hidden Dynamics of Racism