Psychology Articles

"Everyone believes the world's greatest lie..." says the mysterious old man.n"What is the world's greatest lie?" the little boy asks.nThe old man replies, "It's this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."n(An excerpt from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. A fable about following your dreams.)nnDo you believe you have no control over your life? Are you who you are

Inevitably, the sexual fantasy life of narcissists and psychopaths reflects their psychodynamic landscape: their fear of intimacy, misogyny, control freakiness, auto-eroticism, latent sadism and masochism, problems of gender identity, and various sexual paraphilias. Fantasies which reflect a fear of intimacy involve the aggressive or violent objectification of a faceless, nameless, and sometimes sexless person, often in impersonal, alien or foreign settings (example: narrati

Question: Are narcissists mostly hyperactive or hypoactive sexually and to what extent are they likely to be unfaithful in marriage? Answer: Broadly speaking, there are two types of narcissists, loosely corresponding to the two categories mentioned in the question. Sex for the narcissist is ...

I had a conversation recently with an old friend from high school. He said that he would have never pegged me for an introvert. I was a cheerleader, in the band, and in all of the high school plays – it didn't make sense. Since that conversation, I've given a lot of thought to the way I was then and the way I am now (almost 30 years later). The truth is, I'm the same person. I've always had an introverts mind. I spent all of my younger years trying to fit in, not even realiz

Love a schizoidr How to sustain a relationship with a schizoidr THE SCHIZOIDS are people who do not make affective links, they are emotionally cold, avoiding social relations and have significant difficulties in their working lives and their relationships. Here is a sequence that is sometimes occurring: : 1- Falling in love If you're a woman you can find a man, who is respectful, cultured, shy ... You can fall in love with him because of some reason ... or simply for the sake of it.

An open mind is good thing - most of the time. New ideas, new experience, increased knowledge, personal and professional growth, better relationships and an overall positive approach to life are just a few of the benefits of having an open mind. However, there are some pitfalls. Like an open window or an open door in which bugs can enter the home, an open mind is susceptible to litter, junk, lies and deceptions, false information and misdirection. The open mind, like an open window, needs a screen to keep the bugs out.

Interview granted to Samantha Cleaver for YourTango.com Q. What are some common ways that a mother's narcissism can affect her daughter's relationships? A. Depends on how narcissistic the mother is. Narcissistic parents fail to recognize and accept the personal autonomy and boundaries of their offspring. They treat them as instruments of gratification or extensions of themselves.

Are you in a relationship with someone who drives you crazy? Are you in a relationship with someone who no matter how well you point out the facts of their irresponsibility or immaturity they find some way to justify and rationalize all they do? Do you leave conversations with these people feeling unheard, angry and exasperated? If so, you are in a relationship with a difficult person, one who I call an Adult-Child or a Crazy Maker.

Greetings Fellow Stumblers! My Name is David Riklan, and I’m a Stumbler. Here are my Top 10 Reasons that Stumbleupon Users (Stumblers) are Smarter tha Other People. 1) We make quick decisions Tens, hundreds or thousands of them instantly. (This website Sucks, sucks, good site, okay, okay, WOW!, sucks, really sucks, good site, Wow!) 2) We know everything that is going on We view massive amount of interesting knowledge on a daily basis including: news, video, arts, busines

The Sadistic Personality Disorder made its last appearance in the DSM III-TR and was removed from the DSM IV and from its text revision, the DSM IV-TR. Some scholars, notably Theodore Millon, regard its removal as a mistake and lobby for its reinstatement in future editions of the DSM. The ...

When we are in love, the world is golden and nothing gets us down. When we are out of love, we are desperate to regain those feelings we had while in love. The desperation can be so intense, we find ourselves thinking and doing things we would be ashamed to tell our best friend. The excitement of falling in love, being in love, is not just a thrilling psychological and emotional experience. It is as well a bio-chemical experience, what might be called a "high," and there are resemblances to a chemical addiction, and withdrawal, which become evident when we break-up.

It is not common knowledge that divorce is actually a social phenomenon in existence since the time of ancient Mesopotamia. This suggests that the roots of our collective disillusionment with the institution of marriage have some deep, and perhaps meaningful, roots. To understand the meaning of ...

Research indicates that a variety of factors can be associated with the onset of manic symptoms (Johnson 2005; Goodwin and Jamison 2007; Bauer 2008a). It is important to recognize such potential triggers because avoiding or reducing exposure to them can reduce the likelihood that manic symptoms ...

At times, everyone experiences emotions so intense that there’s no controlling them or talking ourselves out of them. When the emotions you feel are so overwhelming that you just need to stop what you’re doing and deal with them, here are some tips for what to do. Remember that feeling your emotions, especially the painful ones, is the way through them.

I would like to introduce you to all the manipulation possibilities of the word “not”. We use it every day dozens of times, but only a very small group of people is fully aware of the power residing in it. Before you too will discover it, I would like to offer you a very interesting experiment. Below are few commands I would like you to read them carefully, close your eyes, repeat them slowly one after another in your thoughts and see how your mind reacts to them.

The other day you were looking, totally innocently, for a telephone number in your partner’s phone, and what you found was much more than the number you were looking for! Now you don’t know what to do with the information. You have discovered your partner has been sexting with a coworker for a few weeks: How should you handle the situation?

Of course they do. All humans have emotions. It is how we choose to relate to our emotions that matters. The narcissist tends to repress them so deeply that, for all practical purposes, they play no conscious role in his life and conduct, though they play an extraordinarily large unconscious ...

People seem to go through two separate periods in their reactions to having herpes. The first obviously comes right away; it starts as you sit in your clinician’s office and hear the words, “I think you may have herpes,” and continues until you get your test results that confirm those ...

Billions of people around the world experience acne over their lifetimes. In fact, acne is the single most common skin disorder, and more common than all other skin disorders combined. nnWith this being the case, it is not surprising to see literally thousands of different acne treatments available on the market today. There are prescription medications, such as accutane, and Retin-A. These work well on severe cystic acne. There are also over the counter medications, such as

Dissociative identity disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder or MPD) is defined in the DSM-IV-TR as the presence of two or more personality states or distinct identities that repeatedly take control of one’s behavior. The patient has an inability to recall personal information. The extent of this lack of recall is too great to be explained by normal forgetfulness. The disorder cannot be due to the direct physical effects of a general medical condition or substance.[1] DID entails a failure to integrate certain aspects of memory, consciousness and identity.

There have been many rumors and speculations that famous songs actually contain subliminal messages. Subliminal messages used in songs are verbal or aural in natured, and are delivered either very quickly or backwards at such low volumes that the audience is unaware of receiving it. Such charges are made not just to rock music, but even Christian songs as well! nnA famous subliminal message in music would be the song Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin, that apparently when pl

After you’ve had herpes for a few weeks or months, the emotions surrounding it sometimes change. You might still have some of the initial ones we talked about, but they’ll tend to fade a bit as you get more information about herpes, in general, and your case, in particular. But now, some new ...

"Such a one (the narcissist – SV) is encased, is he not, in an armour – such an armour! The armour of the crusaders was nothing to it – an armour of arrogance, of pride, of complete self-esteem. This armour, it is in some ways a protection, the arrows, the everyday arrows of life glance off it. ...

Why would anyone want to sabotage their own efforts? It’s a reasonable question. But, a better-phrased question would be what is the motivation and logic underlying self-sabotage. There is little doubt that it occurs. What is often not recognized is that it serves a purpose. There is a positive intention, a need if you will, underlying the behavior of self-sabotage. There are a number of ways in which we sabotage ourselves and in every single case the self-sabotaging behavior can be viewed as serving some positive need.

Emotional affairs might begin as friendships, but they don’t stay that way. The friendship becomes transformed, sometimes slowly, sometimes almost immediately, into a fundamentally different relationship. There are distinct differences between friendships and emotional affairs. - An ...

Interview granted to Harmony (India) The first thing that occurs to me when thinking of aging is a gradual change in one’s physical structure that is apparent to others, and to oneself of course. Now what precisely do we mean by aging, or getting old or older, in terms of the mind or psyche? "Old" is commonly thought of as an adjective which bundles together objective physical and mental changes (for the worse); growing dysfunctions in a variety of areas of life; and cultur

The DSM V re-defines personality disorders thus: at "The essential features of a personality disorder are impairments in personality (self and interpersonal) functioning and the presence of pathological personality traits." According to the June 2011 text of the DSM V, the following criteria must be met to diagnose Narcissistic Personality Disorder (in parentheses my comments): Significant impairments in personality functioning in either identity, or self-direction (should

Whether you’re a new dad or a dad-to-be, you probably already realize something about fatherhood: it’s the highest of the highs—and the lowest of the lows. You’re on an emotional roller coaster unlike any you’ll ever experience. One moment, you’re beaming, the proud dad of a beautiful newborn. ...

An article by Jay Tow, M.S., Certified Sexologist “It’s just not fair.” “How can they do that to me?” “Don’t they care how this affects me?” “This always happens to me. Why can’t I catch a break?”

Question: Is the narcissist characterised by simultaneous instabilities in all the important aspects of his life? Answer: The narcissist is a person who derives his Ego (and Ego functions) from other people's reactions to an image he invents and projects, called the False Self (Narcissistic ...

The love of - nay, addiction to - competitive and solitary sports cuts across all social-economic strata and throughout all the demographics. Whether as a passive consumer (spectator), a fan, or as a participant and practitioner, everyone enjoys one form of sport or another. Wherefrom this universal propensity? Sports cater to multiple psychological and physiological deep-set needs. In this they are unique: no other activity responds as do sports to so many dimensions of one's person, both emotional, and physical.

Many of us mistakenly believe that it's wrong or conceited, to think we have any good qualities. We may spend a lot of time berating ourselves for our negative qualities, thinking that self criticism is the key to improving our performance. However, a constant focus on our supposed shortcomings can hinder our efforts to make friends with other people. How can we have the confidence to make new friends if we think we don’t have much to offer? How can we believe that others c

Do You Seem to Get Caught Up in the Same Old Reactions? Have you ever blown up at your spouse only to realize—after the smoke cleared—that you might have over-reacted just a tad? Maybe you learn that you haven’t been invited to your uncle’s friend’s sister’s birthday party and you behave as if ...

Black and white thinking is sometimes referred to as absolutist or dichotomous thinking. In this kind of thinking, something is all right, or all wrong, all good, or all bad. If you are not a total success, then you are a complete failure. There is no middle ground, regardless of situation or context. It is as if there is only hot water or cold water, no degrees of warm water. There are times when this kind of thinking is useful, even important. For example, for children who live in a home near busy streets, no playing in the street is an absolute rule. No middle ground there, no exceptions.

No man is an island, no woman either for that matter. We are all influenced by our surroundings. Our consciousness is really not our own, but belongs to the environment in which we exist. The appearance of an individual self is an illusion in much the same way empty space appears to be solid matter. And yet, we do experience ourselves as individual entities. But, that does not mean we should ignore the various spheres of influence that make us who we are.

Find a quiet place where you will be relatively free from distractions and unlikely to be bothered by anyone. Sit in a comfortable position. Write down how strong your urge is on a scale from 0 (no urge at all) to 10 (the strongest urge you’ve ever had). Then, write down how much you feel as if ...

Question: What kind of a spouse/mate/partner is likely to be attracted to a narcissist? Answer: The Victims On the face of it, there is no (emotional) partner or mate, who typically "binds" with a narcissist. They come in all shapes and sizes. The initial phases of attraction, infatuation ...

Some of the writing about Borderline Personality Disorder by therapists and health care professionals seems to almost disparage the emotional sensitivity of sufferers who are characterized as experiencing widely varying emotional responses that can swing from anger to delight in a moment. Some portray BPD sufferers a having multiple personalities. This is not strictly true. We do not imagine ourselves to be multiple personalities in the way schizophrenics were once perceived

Question: Am I to blame for my husband's/child's/parent's mental state and behaviour? Is there anything that I can or should do to help him or to reach him? Answer: Self-flagellation is a characteristic of those who choose to live with a narcissist (for a choice it is). Constant feelings of ...

People with homosexual or bisexual orientations have long been stigmatized. The same is the case for those who are gender non-conforming or who feel their assigned at birth sex or gender does not match their true selves. Heterosexism is a term used to describe the belief that heterosexuality ...

PASSIVE PEOPLE Some people think and analyze a lot and act little. Others, however, without so much thought, are more prone to action. The firsts tend to be passive, the seconds, active. The activity-passivity as a way of being, is very related with our hormonal map. THE PASSIVITY

The Stress Doc presents a four step, “Four 'R'” communicational guide for building successful “give and take” professional relationships. The Four “R”s are dramatically illustrated in his recent encounter with an ENT surgeon. Many of us “Boomers” grew up with an alliterative academic mantra as educational foundation, that is, the Four “R”s – Reading, Writing, Rithmetic and Religion. Let’s just say I focused more on the first two “R”s and sort of made a nominal wave at the latter.

Most people find their reactions to traumatic experiences to be confusing; they often feel that they are no longer themselves, but rather a bizarre and ‘crazy’ person . When you know what the common reactions to trauma are, you will be able to identify which of your behaviors are linked to your traumatic experience(s). This identification will allow the feelings of ‘craziness’, isolation and overwhelm to dissipate. In addition, you will gain some control over the behavior, wh

The narcissist presents to the world a facade of invincibility, equanimity, superiority, skilfulness, cool-headedness, invulnerability, and, in short: indifference. This front is penetrated in times of great crises that threaten the narcissist's ability to obtai Narcissistic Supply, or when the Narcissistic Supply is spurious (fake or low-grade), negative, or static. In the majority of cases, narcissists react to deficient narcissistic supply by resorting to several adaptiv

THE STYLES OF AFFECTIVE ATTACHMENT "As your mother loved you and enjoyed you, so you will love and will enjoy life" (Mario Marrone) Most of us have some knowledge of psychological concepts. We use these in everyday life to help us in social interactions, and also to understand ourselves. Most of us are familiar with the terms: introversion, narcissism, self-esteem, trauma, paranoia ... However, this list excludes the concept affective attachment ... Below is a definition for affective attachment, as well as definitions for the various types of attachment …..

There are thousands of articles about the physical preparation that a healthy pregnancy requires and very few about the psychological aspects of it. I titled this article “How to emotionally prepare for motherhood” because the psychological changes that start before your become pregnant do not ...

• Calcium. This mineral is vital for skeletal mineralization, blood clotting, conduction of nerve impulses, buffering of acidic blood, enzyme activity, and muscle contractions.nnn • Phosphorus. This mineral is important for energy, enzyme activity, muscle contraction, and nerve ...

Dealing with divorce is never easy. In fact it is probably amongst the most stressful and grueling experiences one can go through. When we get married we start off with a tremendous amount of hope and expectation. Intellectually we know it will take work but it is truly impossible to really know what kind of work it will take until we are already down the path of the marriage. I believe the reason it is difficult to get an idea of what the work of marriage will look like is because I believe it is individual to each marriage and the specific issues which exist between the partners.

If you’re like most people, you probably said to yourself at least once during your childhood or teens: “I’m never going to behave like my mother (or father) when I grow up.” Such thoughts would enter your mind especially when your parent treated you in a harsh manner, embarrassed you, or ignored you. nnAnd now you may find yourself behaving in the same bratty way toward others. How could this happen? Much to our chagrin, it's quite common to have some of the same neg