Tag Archives: psychology

From YouTube’s Whisper Mister, here’s an oddly fascinating bit of talk therapy meant to induce something called the autonomous sensory meridian response, which Wikipedia calls “a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli.”  You’ll have to turn it …

Television psychologist and frequent chat show guest Dr. Joyce Brothers died at her New Jersey home yesterday at the age of 85. Throughout the 1960s, and long beyond, one could scarcely turn on the television or open a newspaper without encountering her. She was the host of her own nationally syndicated TV shows, starting in the late 1950s with “The …

The British government has issued a statement declaring that “ex-gay” therapy is harmful and should not be allowed. Pink News reports: Culture Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Maria Miller has responded to a parliamentary question on gay conversion therapy by instructing Health Minister Norman Lamb to outline the government’s official position.  It was after Diane Johnson, the Labour …

Britain’s largest psychotherapy group has told its members that “ex-gay” or “reparative therapy” is now officially forbidden. Via James Watkins at Law On The Web: The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) wrote to its near 30,000 members to inform them that so-called gay conversion therapy was now officially off-limits to them, after discovering that some members were still …

Last night California Gov. Jerry Brown finally signed the bill that bans “ex-gay therapy” for children under the age of 18. The bill, SB1172 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), bars mental health practitioners from performing so-called reparative therapy, which professional psychological organizations have said may cause harm. Gay rights groups have labeled them dangerous and abusive. “This …

Some transgender advocates are seeking to have the psychological establishment change its terminology as the profession overhauls its main diagnosis manual for the first time in almost 20 years. Advocates have spent years lobbying the American Psychiatric Association to rewrite or even remove the categories typically used to diagnose transgender people, arguing that terms like Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic …

The largest association of psychologists in the world has issued an endorsement of same-sex marriage. The policymaking body of the American Psychological Association (APA) unanimously approved the resolution 157-0 on the eve of the group’s annual convention, which opens here today. The group, with more than 154,000 members, has long supported full equal rights for gays, based on social science …

A fascinating study of brain cancer patients concludes that damage to a specific portion of the brain leads to an increased desire for “self-transcendence” or spirituality. Researchers think they may have pinpointed the specific location in the brain that controls attitudes about religion. The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called …

Citing 83 studies performed since 1960, yesterday the American Psychological Association declared that “reparative therapy” for homosexuals does not work and should not be attempted. But you knew that. In a resolution adopted by the APA’s governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of “reparative therapy” — a concept espoused by a small …

The Map Scroll has overlaid some study of personality traits on a map of North America. Result: NYC really is a town of Woody Allens. Other personality maps here. Atlanta seems to be very agreeable, which seems about right.(Via – Richard Florida)

A study from the University of Toronto concludes that gay men considered sexually undesirable tend to have riskier sex. Gay men who are not considered sexually desirable are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour, according to new research out of the University of Toronto. They may also develop psychological problems as a consequence of feeling undesirable. Professor Adam …