With the carnage imposed by the current epidemic of opioids and associated overdoses across North America–many dozens of people dying every day– public alarm around addiction is focused almost exclusively on drugs. For all the anguish around substance dependence, addiction cuts a much broader swath across our culture. Most addicted people use no drugs at […]
BEYOND DRUGS: The Universal Experience of Addiction Read More »
I read the Facing Addiction in America, the Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health with a combination of enthusiastic appreciation and dismay. Those impressions were further reinforced recently on hearing the SG, Rear Admiral Vivek Murthy in person, at the Patrick Kennedy Forum on addiction in Chicago. I see the report as a
Dr. Gabor Maté’s Critique of the Surgeon General’s Report Facing Addiction in America Read More »
The consensus as to Donald Trump’s psychiatric issues is nearly unanimous. “Textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” according to clinical psychologists quoted In Vanity Fair, among many who have reached the same conclusion. Noting his motor mouth, chronic inability to pay attention and shockingly deficient impulse control, others diagnosed Trump as a severe case of Attention Deficit
Trump, Clinton and Trauma Read More »
Last week’s death by a Canadian during an ayahuasca ceremony at a Peruvian shamanic centre—an apparent act of self-defence—brought unwelcome but perhaps necessary attention to this Amazonian plant medicine. Ayahuasca tourism is increasingly popular with Westerners seeking healing from physical illness or mental anguish, or simply a sense of meaning amid the growing alienation in our
The profound power of an Amazonian plant – and the respect it demands Read More »
“I never get angry,” says a character in one of Woody Allen’s movies. “I grow a tumor instead.” Much more scientific truth is captured in that droll remark than many doctors would recognize. Mainstream medical practice largely ignores the role of emotions in the physiological functioning of the human organism. Yet the scientific evidence abundantly
How to Build a Better Culture of Good Health Read More »
What is the principle behind Ottawa’s planned massive memorial to the victims of Communism if not to advance Conservative ideology? Ottawa’s promised new memorial to victims of Communism threatens to be both an esthetic monstrosity and a tribute to moral obtuseness. Many have expressed alarm about its visual impact, from the mayor of Ottawa to Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, without deterring the Harper government from financially and ideologically backing the project.
Tories’ Cynical Monument to Victims of Communism Read More »
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 »
