Archive for the ‘Positive Projective Psychology’ Category
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Hendrix (2007), Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples, 20th Anniversary Edition (Paperback), Holt Paperbacks.
Harville Hendrix’s seminal work from 1985 upon which he has written approximately 30 titles stands as his best book of the series. The exercises in the appendix are highly recommended as engaging in such allows a couple to explore their conscious and subconscious values and images.
Hendrix put forth the idea that we choose partners who simultaneously have “the best qualities” and “the worst qualities” for us. He said consciously we choose those with the best qualities but subconsciously we choose those with the worst qualities in order to work out formerly unresolved issues from parenting and our families of origin.
Amazon.com Review
When Harville Hendrix writes about relationships, he discusses them not just as an educator and a therapist, but as a man who has himself been through a failed marriage. Hendrix felt the sting of his divorce intensely because he believed it signaled not only his failure as a husband but also his failure as a couples counselor. Investigating why his marriage dissolved led him to start looking into the psychology of love. Marriage, he ultimately discovered, is the “practice of becoming passionate friends.”
As a result of his research, Hendrix created a therapy he calls Imago Relationship Therapy. In it, he combines what he’s learned in a number of disciplines, including the behavioral sciences, depth psychology, cognitive therapy, and Gestalt therapy, to name just a few. He expounds upon this approach in Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples. His purpose in writing the book, he says, is “to share with you what I have learned about the psychology of love relationships, and to help you transform your relationship into a lasting source of love and companionship.”
Divided into three sections, the book covers “The Unconscious Marriage,” which details a marriage in which the remaining desires and behavior of childhood interfere with the current relationship; “The Conscious Marriage,” which shows a marriage that fulfils those childhood needs in a positive manner; and a 10-week “course in relationship therapy, ” which gives detailed exercises for you and your partner to follow in order to learn how to “replace confrontation and criticism … with a healing process of mutual growth and support.” The text is occasionally dry and technical; however, the information provided is valuable, the case studies are interesting, and the exercises are revealing and helpful. By utilizing his program, Hendrix hopes you too will be able to solve your marital difficulties without the expense of a therapist.
“Hendrix provides much insight into how spouses can mature through one another.” — — Booklist
“I know of no better guide for couples who genuinely desire a maturing relationship.” — — M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled
Beck (1988), Love is Never Enough: How Couples can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts, and Solve Relationships Problems Through Cognitive Therapy, Harper & Row, Publishers.
Aaron T. Beck, M.D., is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research. Dr. Beck is the author of thirteen books. He lives with his wife, Judge Phyllis Beck, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and has four children and eight grandchildren.
Tags:and Solve Relationships Problems Through Cognitive Therapy, Beck, Bibliotherapy for Couples & Marriage Counseling, Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples, Hendrix, Love is Never Enough: How Couples can Overcome Misunderstandings, Resolve Conflicts
Posted in Behavioral Therapy, Bibliotherapy (Self-Help), Book Review(s), Dr Kent's Lists, Family Therapy, Marriage & Couples Therapy, Positive Projective Psychology | 9 Comments »
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
This is such old information I am amazed it caught your attention.
Aluminum plaques (tangles) in the brain occur at the ion level.
No, I do not understand it entirely.
Yes, this knowledge has been suppressed.
No, I do not know of any way to remove aluminum from the body.
There is no use for any aluminum in the body.
There is no FDA minimum daily requirement for aluminum.
Part of the difficulty in this conversation is that the field of psychology has been down-graded and dumbed-down just like the rest of American society, especially our schools.
For instance, while we in medicine and in psychology used to differentially diagnose approximately six different types of dementia’s, since 1983 there has been a tendency to diagnose any dementia as Alzheimer’s Disease. This is unfortunate because many types of dementias can be treated successfully.
For example, I have treated alcohol induced dementia* and successfully reversed one case with massive B vitamin supplementation. However, not all alcohol induced dementia’s respond to treatment. We got lucky that time but as I said motivationally to the patient upon recovery:
“You got lucky. We didn’t think you were going to make it. Do you remember how you were when you came in here? How disoriented you were?
“Do you like being independent? Do you want someone changing your diapers . . .
“We were able to get you back this time. But I don’t think you have many more drunks left in you. If you continue drinking, that fog and stupor could reoccur. It could become irreversible.
“Next time we might not be able to bring you back .”
You can imagine how motivational that session was. The risk in front of that gentleman was that he might not be able to return from another fog of alcohol induced dementia.
*Certainly I am aware of Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome.
Tags:alcohol, Aluminum Causes Alzheimer's Dementia, Aluminum ions, Aluminum plaques, Aluminum tangles, B vitamin deficiency, B vitamin supplementation, FDA, harm reduction, motivational interviewing, risk reduction, Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
Posted in Alzheimer's, FDA: Federal Death Administration, Medical Causes of Mental Disorder (Illness), Substance Abuse Treatment | No Comments »
Friday, April 24th, 2009
The dilemma all psychologists face today is that we have capitulated and given our crown of science & arts to psychiatry and the Medical Model.
While psychiatry has usurped the role of leading provider of mental health services in the maintenance of the public health and welfare from psychology, psychiatry accomplished this without having to put up much of a fight. Indeed, the betrayal came from within—from within the ranks of psychology itself.
Returning that crown to its rightful owner may prove next to impossible. Certainly, there is a lot of truth to the adage:
It takes a man a lot longer to get himself out of trouble
Than what it took to get him in trouble in the first place
So it will be with the return of psychology and behavioral science to its rightful place as King.
In part, I predict this will require the awakening of the public at large to the fact that behavior, character, and moral choices make differences in one’s life trajectory, outcomes; and in one’s mental health.
There may be certainly some modicum of credence in the parallels between the deterioration of culture in the United States and the deterioration of mental health, stability and well-being of the individual.
If one reflects upon current world situations and especially the fragmentation, if you will, the Balkanization of the United States, one realizes quite quickly how the conflicts within the individual may be reflected in the conflicts within society.
It is this particularly poetic justice and beauty of reality that allows one to judge the status of both “the status quo” and the status of the individual within “the status quo.”
It is difficult to over generalize and it is difficult to oversimplify, but sometimes the reduction of both the health of the society and the criteria for the mental health of the individual allow for succinct and salient comparisons. However, it is extremely difficult, neigh impossible to determine cause.
Think of this as a chicken and the egg question: which came first? In other words, did the mental health of the individual deteriorate first or did the culture deteriorate first?
Truly, the status of the culture and the individual mutually impact each other. More importantly, we need to determine target goals and the intervention in order to improve both the health of the culture and individual within the culture.
As is typical in health interventions, we wish the least invasive intervention and leverage that for the maximal outcome. The problem becomes one of ethics because in the typical clinical setting it is requisite to obtain “informed consent to treatment” before intervening.
In today’s society, we have had decades of “intervention” without “informed consent.” Allow me to explain:
We have had decades of “intervention” and “social engineering” without the consent of those being treated!
Moreover, during the last century not only has the electorate (Forgive me folks for getting political.) not been in charge of who has been elected for almost a century, especially President of the United States; more importantly, we have not been in charge of our fate since then.
At this point in time I would like to introduce the reader to the concept of psychosociopolitical warfare. This is not my term, nor is it a new term. In fact the first evidence of it I have found is in the title of an article published anonymously in 1936. It was a title of an article which described part of the undermining of America.
However, the credibility of the article is challenged because there is neither authorship nor publisher associated with it. Moreover, the largest concern regarding its credibility that I have personally is that the strategies announced in this article (purportedly written in 1936) predates the discoveries of most of the modern agents which the article advocates for use in undermining the health and welfare of the best and brightest Americans.
Those agents are drugs, more specifically, psychopharmaceuticals. Most of the psychoactive drugs which are employed in the treatment of mental illness have been discovered since the 50s.
Nonetheless, one must consider the possibility that this article published in 1936 entitled Psychosociopolitical Warfare might be exactly what we have been experiencing for almost a decade.
I am a behavioral psychologist, and as such, I look at function. In other words, I conduct a functional analysis in order to determine what the most salient interventions might be.
I’m also a trained musician, a composer. And during my training as a musician at Berklee in both classical and jazz, I learned that “functional analysis” is paramount in understanding music and its structure. Hence, all things come down to function and function dominates any analysis and understanding.
While we may discount and attack the credibility of Psychosociopolitical Warfare based upon several features including (1) lack of authorship, (2) lack of publisher, and (3) historical features, we may not ignore reality.
One must not ignore the actual impact such proposals as contained in Psychosociopolitical Warfare might have and have had. I advance the fact all of the strategies recommended in Psychosociopolitical Warfare have been implemented!
What do you think?
Feel free to call me paranoid. But remember, it is a healthy paranoia and an informed skepticism.
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Posted in Corruption of Elected Public Officials, Dangers in Mental Health Practises, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), FDA: Federal Death Administration, History & Systems of Psychology, Iatrogenesis, Medical Causes of Mental Disorder (Illness), Negative Projective Psychology, New World Order, Positive Projective Psychology, Psychosociopolitical Warfare | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Don’t believe the Great Deception:
“You can’t take it with you!”
While that might apply to things, goods, chattel, clothing and the like; it has nothing to do with “spirit” or “character.”
Don’t generalize this axiom to the spheres of spirit, personality and character. That would be a mistake and a serious error.
The fact is:
You can and do take it with you.
You take all of your character you developed and all aspects of the spirit with you when you leave your body. The godless ones will (mis)lead you to believe that nothing matters and you take none of it with you, but our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) would agree universally that when we die we take all of the character we have built across a life time with us.
Don’t allow yourself to be deceived and cheated out of that which is your birthright.
Tags:“Founding Mothers”, birthright, character, deception, Founding Fathers, Founding Mothers, fraud, godless, Great Deception, liberal, liberals, New World Order, personality, psychiatry, psychology, Psychosociopolitical Warfare, spirit, you can’t take it with you
Posted in Christianity, Dangers in Mental Health Practises, New World Order, Positive Projective Psychology | No Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
While it is generally known that a blogger must post regularly in order to get readership and perhaps even secure a following, I really would appreciate hearing from others. I am open to allowing others write and post on my blog their experiences and concerns with mental health service systems & providers.
I really need some feedback and the outrageous amount of spam I get from the usual cadre of unscrupulous spammers really saddens me. If you have a comment, please post. If you like something I have written and want more, let me know. If you are offended and disagree with something I have posted, I really want to hear from you.
The fact is I fell like I am working in a vacuum. I really don’t like distant electronic communications. I feel I have posted a lot of salient and sensitive material but it has not drawn the feedback I was hoping for. In short, I want to hear from you.
Tags:feedback, guest writers, spam, spammers
Posted in Anxiety, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
THE BUZZARD
If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6′ x 8′ and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10-12′. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
THE BAT
The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and painfully until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
THE BUMBLEBEE
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
PEOPLE
In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up. Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up. Live simply, love generously, care deeply and speak kindly. May your troubles be less, your blessings more, and may nothing but happiness come through your door. “The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.”
Courtesy of Jeanette G.
[Salvation By Grace] Daily Digest for 2/11/2009
Tags:bat, blessings, bumblebee, buzzard, Care2Connect, character, destroys itself, escape, faith, God, Grace of God, happiness, love, people, Salvation by Grace, the grace of God, the will of God, United States of America, will of God
Posted in Christianity, God, Positive Projective Psychology | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
The current DSM is the DSM IV-TR in which “TR” stands for “Text Revision.” The most significant change between the DSM IV and the DSM IV-TR is that a new criterion was inserted almost universally into every category of major mental illness:
Denial of having a mental disorder or a mental illness became a bonafide criterion for diagnosing the client with mental illness.
That may not seem so odd but it is subtle. Now, if a person claimed they were healthy, that “denial” counted as a mark in the check list finding that person mentally ill!
Thus, the entire field of mental health became self-serving and self-centered. Rather than rely upon the client complaining & requesting our help, we were and are going to find them mentally ill and in need of our services, no matter what. Whether they need our services or want them, matters not. All that matters is what we as “experts” say.
Such a move (to the “TR”) further strains credibility and reveals that what passes for mental health treatment today is nothing more than projecting negative diagnoses and labels upon less sophisticated, helpless and vulnerable persons who are unable to defend themselves from the overwhelming onslaught of the “experts,” from the numbers and shear size of the community of mental health treatment providers.
It is a stacked deck against which no one prevails. While those in cushy positions making larger salaries may think they are helping their fellow man, all they are really doing is helping themselves by riding on the backs of those upon whom they cast their labels, if you will, upon the backs of those upon whom they ‘cast their spells.’
Gee, maybe psychology really has become a field dominated by women. Dare I say witchcraft? Because
most of the professionals I see today, old and young alike, male and female alike, don’t know what they are doing!
This is why I call the practice that prevails today “Negative Projective Psychology” and why I have come up with the term “Positive Projective Psychology” to contrast the errors made across the field which cause so many in our country to suffer.
A tell tale sign of negative practice is a practitioner who claims that ‘therapy is “hard” and it is “stressful” for the practitioner.’ Hog wash! If it is difficult for those practitioners, it is because they have been ill trained, poorly equipped and don’t understand the limitations of natural boundaries & empowering and truly helping their clients!
Lastly, “liberal” psychologists should not be treating “conservative” clients! This is because of the value system impasse.
Conservatives understand the true meaning and quest for independence and independent functioning, whereas, liberals caretakers invoke dependency and make their patient’s dependent upon them. They want them coming back so they can make that payment on their air planes, vacations or extra houses.
Liberals do not want their clients’ getter better and leaving them. In part, it may be an “abandonment issue” for the practitioner! But it is mostly about keeping the money flowing.
Such is the fate of an industry controlled by insurance companies and subject to mismanagement of motivation on the part of the professionals! According to one malpractice attorney with whom I consulted, the insurance companies have tainted it all! The insurance companies have ruined it all!
There is no safe place.
Tags:abandonment, accreditation, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, APA, boundaries, caretakers, category, conservative, conservatives, credentialing, credibility, crown of science, denial, dependent, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Diminished Salaries, DSM, DSM I, DSM II, DSM III, DSM III-R, DSM IV, DSM IV-TR, experts, false positives, feminists, Iatrogenesis, iatrogenic, independent, insurance companies, law of supply and demand, liberal, liberals, major mental illness, malpractice, malpractise, Medical Model, mental health treatment community, mental health treatment providers, negative diagnoses, negative labels, Negative Projective Psychology, Ph.D., political, Positive Projective Psychology, practitioner, professional boundaries, project, psychiatric, psychiatry, psychological evaluation, Psychologist, Psychologist III, psychologists, psychology, self-serving, spells, Text Revision, therapy, There is no safe place., TR, United States of America, Unprofessional Conduct, values, witchcraft, women
Posted in Dangers in Mental Health Practises, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), DSM, History & Systems of Psychology, Iatrogenesis, Medical Causes of Mental Disorder (Illness), Negative Projective Psychology, New World Order, Positive Projective Psychology, Psychosociopolitical Warfare | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
By the time the DSM III R was published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1987, the field of psychology had been on the way to its demise. Many would argue that with the publication of the DSM III in 1980 the writing was on the wall. The “political” rivalries that dominated the work conducted by multiple committees were the beginning of the downfall of psychology as the crown of science.
Certainly, the rise of the American Psychological Association (note: This is a “different” APA than above.) and its encroachment on the credentialing (accreditation) of colleges and university programs in psychology crested during that same time. It is odd to observe these forces at work at the same time, but the fact is psychology became more politicized and psychiatry overtook psychology during those years as the profession recognized as the leader in mental health treatment. During that time the pay of the average psychologist diminished greatly.
While liberals, especially feminists, blamed the drastic decrease in salaries to male chauvinism and the field becoming recognized as a field dominated by women who we don’t pay as much as men, the sad realities are a bit different. Certainly, the profession today has more women than men. Salaries are depressed for all.
Psychiatry achieved dominance by getting their DSM series recognized and adopted by the entire profession, including psychologists and social workers. Adoption of psychiatry’s DSM was guaranteed when insurance companies began reimbursing services for disorders coded with DSM diagnoses. Moreover, the DSM series implied the only real treatment for mental disorders was medication, hence, the rise of the hegemony of the Medical Model and the demise of psychology.
The second reality was that the field of psychology did not become a field dominated by women as much as it was affected by the law of supply and demand. Each year during that decade, the schools and universities were pumping out so many graduates that supply exceeded demand. Under such circumstances, prices fall naturally. In fact, on average there were 250-400 graduates each year who could not find suitable post doctoral internships in order to obtain licensure!
Today, that mismatch continues and it is not advised that anyone enter the field unless they feel a real “calling.” In fact, one is likely to make more money over one’s lifetime in nursing with an average investment of four (4) years of undergraduate education in comparison to the additional five (5) years of graduate tuition required to achieve a doctorate. Remember, most people who begin that quest do not finish.
Tags:abandonment, accreditation, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, APA, boundaries, caretakers, category, conservative, conservatives, credentialing, credibility, crown of science, Demise of Care, denial, dependent, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Diminished Salaries, DSM, DSM I, DSM II, DSM III, DSM III-R, DSM IV, DSM IV-TR, experts, false positives, feminists, Iatrogenesis, iatrogenic, independent, insurance companies, law of supply and demand, liberal, liberals, major mental illness, malpractice, Medical Model, mental health treatment community, mental health treatment providers, negative diagnoses, negative labels, Negative Projective Psychology, political, Positive Projective Psychology, practitioner, professional boundaries, psychiatric, psychiatry, Psychologist, psychologists, psychology, self-serving, spells, Text Revision, therapy, TR, United States of America, values, witchcraft, women
Posted in Dangers in Mental Health Practises, DSM, History & Systems of Psychology, Iatrogenesis, Medical Causes of Mental Disorder (Illness), Mental Health Records, Negative Projective Psychology, Positive Projective Psychology, Psychosociopolitical Warfare | No Comments »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
The key differentiating feature about Bipolar Disorder Type III is that it is an admission that psychiatric drugs cause irreversible Brain Damage!
Bipolar Disorder Type III is caused by exposure to psychiatric medications and is considered permanent!
This is a frank admission that many Bipolar Disorders are iatrogenically caused, iatrogenically created. In other words, Bipolar Disorders are caused by the treating physician!
Bipolar Disorder Type III was proposed sometime during or before 2006 as a new category for the upcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V (DSM V); however, the DSM V appears to have been delayed permanently.
Perhaps part of the delay might be the fear of exposure of the fact psychiatric medications work upon principles of toxicity and disabling.
Rather than “fix” chemical imbalances, they “cause” chemical imbalances!
Long term usage results in permanent Brain Damage!
Tags:bipolar disorder, Bipolar Disorder Type III, bipolar disorders, chemical imbalance, chemical imbalances, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual V, differential diagnosis, disabling, DSM, DSM 5, DSM V, iatrogenic, iatrogenically caused, permanent brain damage, psychiatric mediations, toxicity
Posted in Bipolar Disorder Type I, Bipolar Disorder Type II, Bipolar Disorder Type III, Dangers in Mental Health Practises, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Iatrogenesis, Medical Causes of Mental Disorder (Illness), Negative Projective Psychology, New World Order, Positive Projective Psychology | 6 Comments »