Recent news should alarm all but the most complacent observers of today’s youth scene. In Toronto, two teenagers have been stabbed to death by their peers in the past few weeks, one just outside his own home as he tried to prevent some party-crashers from entering. Also in Toronto, three adolescents are on trial for […]
Are Violent Teens Suffering ‘The Rage Of The Unparented’? Read More »
His public persona shattered, Jian Ghomeshi’s overweening narcissism has become the subject of public scorn. His reported violence against women, whether inside or outside sexual interplay, has been rightly denounced. Yet making this scandal all about Ghomeshi, we risk ignoring the broader sources of male narcissistic rage towards females. We are dealing here with far more than the pathological quirks of an apparently disturbed and charismatic individual.
Jian Ghomeshi and the Problem of Narcissistic Male Rage Read More »
While there may be genetic predispositions toward depression and addiction, a predisposition is not the same as a predetermination. Death, Robin Williams once said, is “the ultimate closing.” The turbulent comic genius found that closing recently, at his own hands.
Lesson from Robin Williams: Take Depression Seriously Read More »
As a Jewish youngster growing up in Budapest, an infant survivor of the Nazi genocide, I was for years haunted by a question resounding in my brain with such force that sometimes my head would spin: “How was it possible? How could the world have let such horrors happen?”
Beautiful Dream of Israel has Become a Nightmare Read More »
Many parents would be horrified at the sadism their children favour as entertainment. Ought they to be worried? In Hostel, the gore flick young audiences have made into North America’s top-grossing theatre attraction, human beings perpetrate on one another whatever can be accomplished with knives, hooks, scalpels, tongs, drills, pincers and electrical saws. Paxton and
We Should Be Alarmed That Our Children Are Not More Alarmed Read More »
The signs of trauma have been unmistakable for years: the obesity, the bombast, the bellicose defensiveness, the need to project a larger-than-life persona as compensation for low self-esteem.
Can Rob Ford Conquer his Pain and Become an Inspiration? Read More »
Until his death, former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was the world’s most famous Alzheimer’s sufferer. “I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life,” he wrote in his poignant farewell message to Americans when he was first diagnosed at 83. The acknowledgment marked the formal onset of his long,
Was Reagan’s Trademark Smile The First Sign of Alzheimer’s? Read More »
When our two grown-up sons were in elementary school, my wife and I despaired of their ever getting along. Bickering, insults, mutual recrimination and, at times, physical altercations were the order of the day. The seemingly incessant squabbling went on for years. Our older son in particular appeared determined to make his brother’s life utterly
What You Should Do When Your Kids Are Bickering Read More »
Among the major challenges we face, as a society, is the widespread lack of resilience of many young people. Resilience is the capacity to overcome adversity, to let go of what doesn’t work, to adapt and to mature. Growing evidence of its absence among the young is as ominous for our future as the threat
Why Can’t Johnny Adapt? Read More »
‘Some of our friends see us as weak parents because we haven’t Ferberized our children,” says my niece Rachel Maté, a 33-year-old Vancouver lawyer and mother of two. ” ‘You’re letting your baby control your lives,’ they argue. But it would break my heart to let my baby cry without comforting her.” Named after Dr.
Why I No longer Believe Babies Should Cry Themselves to Sleep Read More »
