Therapy

It may be a pure coincidence, but at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art they're displaying a tower of brains during APA week. Meanwhile, the DSM5 is officially out: And if that weren't enough chaos for you, we have the obligatory APA protesters. (Do urologists get protesters at their conventions?) I'm looking forward to meeting with Roy and our longsuffering Clinical Psychiatry News editor for dinner tonight.----- Listen to our latest podcast at mythreeshrinks.com or subscribe to our rss feed. Email us at mythreeshrinks at gmail dot com Our book is out now.

Is 'cloning' appropriate terminology for somatic cell nuclear transfer derivation of human embryonic stem cells?... Tachibana, M., Amato, P., Sparman, M., Gutierrez, N., Tippner-Hedges, R., Ma, H., Kang, E., Fulati, A., Lee, H., Sritanaudomchai, H.... (2013) Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.006 Human Embryonic Stem Cells Derived by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

. In honor of 100 years of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore cinematographer Richard Chisolm, along with Kindall Rende, created this movie of members of the department talking about psychiatry at Hopkins. Many of the people shown in the film have been guest bloggers on Shrink Rap, and they include our mentors, colleagues, and friends. Both ClinkShrink and I are proud to be members of the department and we are both grateful for the education we've received, so we hope you'll spend a few minutes watching Richard's tribute.----- Listen to our latest podcast at mythreeshrinks.com or subscribe to our rss feed. Email us at mythreeshrinks at gmail dot com Our book is out now.

In two recent posts, I have referenced a relatively-average psychologist (again, this psychologist need not bear any resemblance to any particular person, living or dead). I found this relatively-average psychologist to be severely handicapped in their ability to think about … Continue reading →... Smallegange, R., van Gemert, G., van de Vegte-Bolmer, M., Gezan, S., Takken, W., Sauerwein, R., & Logan, J. (2013) Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor. PLoS ONE, 8(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0063602 Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor

My fiance and I are in a long distance relationship. We were dating and engaged for 4 years before I broke up with him and relocated across county. We have now been back together a year but the demons from the past are cropping up again. We do fight, sometimes vehemently when it comes to how I choose to spend my free time. It was like this in the past. I’ve been a bit of a hermit the past year and, at his urging, he tells me to find friends and find things to do. I mention to him, a female co-worker and I were chatting about our love of cooking. She mentioned she throws a dinner party once in awhile and I said I’d love to go. She also mentioned her friend was having an art exhibit opening and that was music to my ears. I appreciate art. When I tell my fiance this he immediately says “sounds like the nightlife and acting single, have at it”. There was communication melt down after this. He is concerned that there could be another single man there so it would not be appropriate to put myself in that situation. I feel that is a good compromise since it is not a nightlife or club atmosphere. I was very angry and called him controlling and insecure. He said I was being too dominate and strong and if it made him uncomfortable I shouldn’t go. He now wants to take a break from the relationship and think things over. I feel I have a very short list of things I can do that he would approve of since it was a problem in the past for me to have dinner with friends. He thought that would lead to drinks and then more drinks and clubs and I would come home too late at night. Or I may get buzzed and do something that can damage the relationship. I’ve never violated his trust or damaged the relationship so I feel he makes up scenarios to justify the way he feels. Is there a way that I can communicate to him that me going to a dinner party, or anything of that matter is not disrespectful to him. He’s the one I love, I tell him all the time. In return I get texts or he asks why I wan’t to be with him. Please help. A: You are 35 years old, yet your fiance is treating you like a teenager who has no judgment. You’re correct. He is setting too many boundaries. It seems like all you have to do is even think about attending an art exhibit or dinner party and his mind creates a story about you getting swept up in inappropriate things. He says you are too dominant yet he thinks you are so weak you can’t make good decisions. I don’t see anything good coming out of this. You’ve never violated his trust but he acts as if you can’t be trusted at all. This isn’t a problem of communication. He is so insecure that the only way he feels comfortable in the relationship is by isolating you. Nothing you can say or do is going to change this. He needs serious therapy. I suggest you take a break from this relationship until he does some serious personal work and proves to you that he doesn’t have to limit you to feel okay. I wish you well. |Dr. Marie

Today while we were both in respective dark depressed moods, my girlfriend jumped on me and started kissing me very forcefully. I told her I really did not want to and pushed her aside. I got up and she came up to me, pulled down my pants and started groping for my penis. I pushed her away but she kept forcing and forcing herself on me. I clearly repeated ‘no’ many times. Eventually I got away, as it was difficult because I didn’t want to hurt her, and she pushed me on the bed and grabbed my penis and forcing it in her mouth. I tried to push her away but I didn’t want to hurt her, even though she was hurting me. Eventually I felt as though it was pointless to resist and just let her. I was not aroused at all but still ejaculated (is that really possible?). I since feel so invaded, hurt, angry and most of all, it made me feel even more depressed. Like I’m sinking into this black hole. I feel robbed of something but we have been dating for over 4 years and I’m a man. Should I feel like this? Do I have a right to feel like this? A: You certainly have a right to feel like this and this is an important issue you are bringing forward. Not having your girlfriend respect your refusal is extremely serious. Your boundaries were not respected, you were clear and clearly ignored. This doesn’t sound romantic, exciting, or sexy. It sound degrading and controlling: two characteristics you do not want to have in your partner. Since you are in college I would go to the counseling center and tell them what happened – not as a couple, but as someone who has survived a rape. For more information you may want to check out this article. Don’t wait. The longer you take to begin talking about this, the more uncomfortable it will become. You have taken a good first step here. Now it is time to follow it up with a counselor at your school. Wishing you patience and peace, Dr. Dan Proof Positive Blog @ PsychCentral

Eric Maisel’s new book Making Your Creative Mark promises nine keys to achieving your artistic goals. That’s a lie. The book literally chimes and jingles with keys. The last eleven pages alone has 99 of them, for example these 10: One of the best ways to help yourself create every day is to craft a starting ritual that you begin to use regularly and routinely. When your ritual becomes habitual you will find yourself moving effortlessly from not creating to creating. Reframe discipline as devotion. Creativity is your teacher. Pick a creative project whose express purpose is to teach you something about your situation or your nature. If you regularly block, what do you think are the sources of your blockage? Do you block only on certain work? Do you block at certain points in the process? Do you block at certain times of the year? Become your own expert on blockage! Learn some anxiety management techniques. Anxiety makes us undisciplined. Learn a deep-breathing technique or a relaxation technique to help you stay put. Anxiety is part of the process – learn how to manage it! Don’t shrug away the fact that you’re not completing your creative work. Get to the last sentence of the last page of the last revision. Then launch your piece into the marketplace. If you are not completing projects, do not accept that from yourself! Do you have a plan to survive the countless rejections that will come your way? Create that plan! Create everywhere. Create in the rain. Create buy the side of the road. Create wherever you find yourself! Say, “I will astonish myself.” Then you’re bound to astonish others. There may be days when the work frustrates you horribly. Maybe you’ll downright hate it. Those are the days to love your work! Remember to love your work especially on the days you hate it. And it goes on and on. The thing is that it goes on and on in that vein – the vast majority of his ideas are just really good, and not something you’ve already heard over and over again. Take what he says on anxiety. He devotes a whole chapter to stress and anxiety as it relates to the creative process. In it is a subchapter on The Stress of Marketing Art. Isn’t every creative person familiar with that? When I worked at the Alliance for Arts and Culture, advising artists on how to make money without going crazy, that was a topic we talked about a lot (kudos here to Judi Piggott, the patron saint of Vancouver artists, who invented and ran that program for twelve years). So what are the parts of that stress? Thinking about selling your art Not knowing what to say Dealing with people who hold the power and the purse strings Feeling pressured to “sell yourself” Dealing with people who dismiss you Not feeling up to asking Does any of this feel familiar? Of course. And you may not even be an artist. And over and over he says, if this creates anxiety for you, go and find a way to deal with the anxiety. Don’t give in to it. That in itself is a pretty uplifting message. Maisel doesn’t give you tons of ways to deal with the anxiety; instead he points to one of his other books, such as Mastering Creative Anxiety. Oh yes, he knows how to sell his own stuff, so he knows what he’s talking about. And he has a lot of stuff – almost 40 books, seven of them fiction. And some meditation decks. And a home study course. And he’s a coach and a therapist with a PhD. Honestly, I think every creative person should own at least one of his books. This man knows what he’s talking about.

Blue Harvest @ Wikipedia @ Family GuyI need to create a suitable atmosphere for this post, so try this music for size and think Blue Harvest...Right. The wait is over. The discussions / arguments / objections / agreements are all confined to history. Drum roll, spotlight centre-stage... enter DSM-5 and into unknown territory we all go, particularly with autism, sorry.. autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in mind.As you can see from the link above to the new diagnostic guidelines from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) the diagnosis of autism has, as was widely anticipated, changed somewhat to encompass quite a few adaptations (see this previous post).I'm not saying too much more on this at the present time, bearing in mind 'spectrum' is a word which seems to get more of a mention in this revision of the DSM; and not just with autism in mind (see here and here*).Obviously things aren't going to just change overnight with DSM-5 as it is eventally rolled out. Clinicians will need to learn some new diagnostic brushstrokes. Remember too that DSM is only one part of the diagnostic manuals currently in use (although even ICD is subject to revision in coming years already mentioning something called Social Reciprocity Disorder?). That being said, the implications of DSM-5 on issues like the autism numbers game - same as what happened across previous versions - are probably going to be subject to some pretty intense scrutiny over the coming years.Don't also be under any disillusion that the new changes are going to herald any giant leaps forward in autism research anytime soon. Interestingly, Dr Tom Insel, head of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was recently quoted as saying that "NIMH will be re-orienting its research away from DSM categories", reported also by other authors** (open-access). In other words, even with the fresh smell of new DSM in the air, a new 'nosology' is already planned.To close, Peter 'Han Solo' Griffin on TIE fighters... dan-dan-da-dan, da-da-dan-dan-dan...---------* Adam D. Mental health: on the spectrum. Nature. 2013; 496: 416-418.** Lai M-C. et al. Subgrouping the autism “spectrum": reflections on DSM-5. PLoS Biol. 2013; 11: e1001544.----------Lai M-C, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, & Baron-Cohen S (2013). Subgrouping the Autism “Spectrum": Reflections on DSM-5 PLoS Biology... Lai M-C, Lombardo MV, Chakrabarti B, & Baron-Cohen S. (2013) Subgrouping the Autism “Spectrum": Reflections on DSM-5. PLoS Biology. info:/

Starting 6/1, CMPS will be using an alternative diagnostic system instead of DSM-5. This will be the only diagnostic system allowed on our new EHR system. See: The Diagnostic Manual of Mishegas: potchkied together and .com-piled by Jay Neugeboren, Michael B. Friedman, Lloyd I. Sederer M.D. THE DIAGNOSTIC MANUAL OF MISHEGAS (DMOM) The authors cut through the hundreds of categories in the 1000-page D.S.M. by dividing all mental disorders into two realms: mishegas major and mishegas minor. And for each of the sub-categories it analyzes—spilkes major (and spilkes minor), yenta, kvetch, alter kocker, shnorrer, dementia-with-benefits, etc. THE DMOM will enable readers to transform ordinary tsuris and mishegas—the glooms, blues, angsts, and general chazzerie of their lives—into transcendent and easy-to-understand categories. It will turn kvetching into kvelling and guilt into gelt, so that readers will learn to live at peace with their inner mishegas and to treasure its precious and life-giving absurdities. Comments: " ich dorf es vi a loch in kop (it's needed like a hole in the head)...." "A Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor is no substitute for a good piece of herring!" "I hate this book!" (Herbert Luftmensch, Chair, Inner Sanctomonium Sub-Committee, APA) ----- Listen to our latest podcast at mythreeshrinks.com or subscribe to our rss feed. Email us at mythreeshrinks at gmail dot com Our book is out now.

Preferred Foot Strike Pattern and Soft Tissue Vibration... Enders H, von Tscharner V, & Nigg BM. (2013) The effects of preferred and non-preferred running strike patterns on tissue vibration properties. Journal of science and medicine in sport / Sports Medicine Australia. PMID: 23642961 The effects of preferred and non-preferred running strike patterns on tissue vibration properties.