A Guide To Anger And Conflict Resolution
Welcome to From Insults to Respect. In today’s world, if you are experiencing melancholy or depression, the pharmaceutical industry very much wants to sell you on the idea that you have an abnormal condition that is deemed an illness. You would think with the popularity of the blues type of music, periods of bluesy feelings would be viewed as normal as trees in a forest;…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. For those of us who have endured a brutally hot summer, the arrival of autumn sure is a welcome sight. This past weekend, I happened to be checking out some stuff on YouTube and came upon a wonderful version of the song, “Melancholy Mood,” sung, believe it or not, by Bob Dylan. The amazingly prolific song writer and musical…
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Welcome to From Insults To Respect. Today’s topic: How might parents wisely respond to their teenager’s experience with depression? Imagine your thirteen-year-old teenage daughter begins to express a concern about being depressed. Many in the psychiatric profession, heavily backed up by the pharmaceutical industry, would urge you to make an appointment with a psychiatrist as fast as you can. That approach typically leads to the doctor…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today we take an interesting look at two states of being, depression and melancholy. A central difference between the two has to do with throwing insults at ourselves; when we are depressed we spend a great deal of time doing that, in melancholy, not so much. To better understand what I mean by this, and to clarify the natural…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today we continue our exploration of famous people who, despite experiencing depression, managed to achieve an outstanding level of respect. In the recent past, the experiences of Joni Mitchell (see HERE), U.S. Grant (see HERE), Leo Tolstoy (see HERE), and Abraham Lincoln (see HERE) led us along their personal journey. We now turn to the master of all psychologists, William James, to…
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Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Regular readers know that from time to time I will discuss some famous person’s experience with depression. The experiences of Joni Mitchell (see HERE), U.S. Grant (see HERE), and Leo Tolstoy (see HERE) are the most recent examples. All of them, despite their mighty struggles with depression, still managed to earn the respect of millions. To continue this series on…
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Since as far back as she can remember, Carla, 19-years-old, has been having periods during which she has waves of deeply sad feelings. She has family members who say that depression runs in their family, and she should see a psychiatrist for treatment. So, off she goes, and after a few questions, the psychiatrist declares she has a mental illness called Major Depressive Disorder. Carla…
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If your behavior, thoughts, or feelings become a concern, for a fee, many psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers are eager to translate your experiences into a language of symptoms, diagnoses, psychopathology, and mental illness. In an earlier post I provided negative criticism about this type of name-calling (see here). Today, we focus in on an additional problem with the pathologizing approach. Psychiatric Name-Calling Simplistically Devalues…
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