A Behavioral Approach to Mental Disorders

More on Multiple Personality Disorder

December 13, 2011

I’m now in retirement, but during my professional career I usually (almost always) wore a suit and tie when I went to work.  I enjoyed my work, and I was very comfortable in that role. But I’m also a committed remodeler.  Apart from the time when I was acutely ill, I’ve always had at least [...]

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Multiple Personality Disorder – Another Bogus Illness

November 20, 2011

MPD became an official APA “diagnosis” with the publication of DSM-III in 1980.  It has since been renamed as dissociative identity disorder.  The criteria are: A. The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self). [...]

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More on Homosexuality

November 4, 2011

I came across this on Yahoo! News. BOSTON (AP) — Gay rights groups say they’re pleased the oldest Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States has retracted an opinion column suggesting the devil may be responsible for gay attraction. The column in the Boston archdiocese’s The Pilot newspaper was titled “Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction.” [...]

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Behaviorism and Sin

October 28, 2011

I am writing this post in response to Jeanne’s last comment concerning the concept of sin.  This takes us a little outside the normal orbit of this blog, and also outside my field.  But since behaviorism is a way of looking at human activity, and sin is an alternative way of looking at the same phenomenon, [...]

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Homosexuality

October 19, 2011

In a recent comment on my last post Jeanne raised some important questions concerning homosexuality.  These are issues where considerations of political correctness and religious dogma have stifled genuine discussion and dialogue.  I will try to address these questions openly and straightforwardly. The sex or gender of a person expresses itself in five general ways. [...]

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Homosexuality: The Mental Illness That Went Away

October 8, 2011

According to the American Psychiatric Association, until 1974 homosexuality was a mental illness.  Freud had alluded to homosexuality numerous times in his writings, and had concluded that paranoia and homosexuality were inseparable.  Other psychiatrists wrote copiously on the subject, and homosexuality was “treated” on a wide basis.  There was little or no suggestion within the [...]

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Legacy of Abuse

October 2, 2011

Psychiatry likes to present itself as a helping profession, but even a cursory look at its history suggests otherwise.  Here are some of the “treatments” that this pseudo-science has promoted for its pseudo-illnesses. STERILIZATION It is estimated that 65,000 people were sterilized in America under various eugenic statutes.  This practice, which was used between the [...]

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A Blood Test for Depression

August 24, 2011

Daniel Carlat in his blog post of August 15 mentions, and critiques, a so-called blood test for depression marketed (for $745) by Ridge Diagnostics. The essence of Dr. Carlat’s criticism is that the test is not predictive of depression, but merely enables one to tell (with some degree of accuracy) whether or not a person [...]

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Behavior Therapy

August 8, 2011

In a comment on my post on Natural Correction, Nanu Grewal raised a question concerning the addressing of behavioral problems.  This is a huge topic, and I feel the reply warrants a post.  There are others who could do a better job than me, but here’s my take on it. Traditional behavior therapy starts with assessment.  [...]

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Natural Correction

July 10, 2011

The central theme of this blog is that there are no mental illnesses and that the spurious medicalization of problems of living represents a tragic wrong turn in human history. In a comment on my last post, Nanu Grewal raised the question of a natural correction.  In other words, does there come a point where [...]

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