A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is the frequency illusion, also known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Do you ever find that once you start to notice something, all of a sudden, it's happening a lot? There's a name for that; it's a type of… Continue reading What Is… the Frequency Illusion (Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon)
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when we have two beliefs that conflict, or our beliefs and actions don't match, making us feel uncomfortable. The concept was originally described back in the 1950s by psychologist Leon Festinger. The… Continue reading What Is… Cognitive Dissonance
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is mentalization. Mentalizing is something you do, but probably haven't heard of. My browser's spell-checker tells me it's not a word. Okay, so what is it? Well, that's not the easiest thing to explain. Defining mentalism The American… Continue reading What Is… Mentalization
This post isn't about saying that suicide is something people should choose, or that it's a good choice, or that it's a choice that they want to have on the menu. I'm writing this because, while it's much more complicated to get into the element of choice, I believe that it's inaccurate to say that… Continue reading Is Suicide a Choice? (Regardless, It’s Not Selfish)
Introducing Evolutionary Psychology: A Graphic Guide by Dylan Evans and Oscar Zarate offers an easy-to-read intro to the human mind's evolution over time. The book manages to cram some substantial subject matter into simple explanations and ultra-short chapters, all accompanied by fun illustrations. The book begins with some foundational concepts like heredity, evolution, and natural… Continue reading Book Review: Introducing Evolutionary Psychology: A Graphic Guide
This post flows from a few different things that other bloggers have been talking about lately. I'll refer specifically to a couple of posts about faith on Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of mourning, but this also ties into what some other people have been talking about with regards to subjective vs. objective reality. This… Continue reading Faith, Attribution, and Cognitive Dissonance
A while back, a post about choosing to be positive came up in my WP Reader feed. The blogger mentioned that "our mind is something we do and can have control over." While they weren't making reference to mental illness at all, I don't think control over one's own mind is quite so cut and… Continue reading How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Mind?
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week's term is executive functioning. Executive functioning refers to higher-level cognitive processes related to organization and regulation. It's the C-suite of your brain, or kind of like your brain's air traffic control system. Tasks that fall under this umbrella include:… Continue reading What Is… Executive Functioning
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is really big on using metaphors to convey key concepts. This post will take a look at a few of them. Self-as-context metaphors Chessboard A core message of ACT is that our self is the context for what happens inside our heads, not the content of it. One metaphor for… Continue reading Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphors
Remember by Lisa Genova is a non-fiction book that explores how we do, and don't, remember. Genova is a neuroscientist who's also the author of five fiction books, all of which I've read. They feature characters with neurological conditions like Alzheimer's (Still Alice) and Huntingdon's (Inside the O'Briens). The book begins by describing how memories… Continue reading Book Review: Remember by Lisa Genova