Conclusion of yesterday’s column. Reporter: I think lots of people confuse happiness with fun, and the dangers there are obvious. People who are always looking for that moment-to moment ‘high’ are, it seems to me, far less likely to find … Continue reading
Dr. Hurd recently engaged in a discussion with a journalist about issues related to happiness, self-esteem, psychology, self-help, and much more. What follows are some excerpts from that discussion: Reporter: It seems to me that we have a fundamental confusion … Continue reading
Human beings have a tendency to project impossible wishes onto figures that they deem to be capable of impossible things. Some project these wishes onto parent figures — actual parent figures, or imagined ones if their real parents disappointed them … Continue reading
Dear Dr. Hurd, I am a gay man. My partner of two years and I got married in Massachusetts after being together for about a year. I thought everything was perfect, but things have changed. He criticizes everything I do. … Continue reading
The notorious and documented failures of drug and alcohol rehab (made even more public by Hollywood’s perpetually neurotic glitterati) can be attributed to a single, primary factor: The addict only addresses the symptoms—the act of abusing alcohol or drugs. However, … Continue reading
Conclusion of Friday’s column. I don’t mean to imply that entitlement is always wrong. Let’s say you buy a new computer. You get home, carefully read the instructions, and the computer doesn’t work, so you take the computer back to the … Continue reading
When dealing with other people, the reasonable, sensitive, and even self-interested thing to do is compromise, and be prepared to meet the other person halfway. Correct? Well, not really. All action needs to be purposeful. That includes the action of … Continue reading
According to Dr. Walter Kaye, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, anorexics use starvation as a mode of self-medication. How? Starvation prevents tryptophane, an essential amino acid that produces serotonin, from getting into the brain. By eating less, … Continue reading
Coercion, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry: Can A Mind Be Made To Reason? Sally Satel, a physician who wrote a book entitled ‘P.C., M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine,’ likewise fails to see the point about her profession. On the one … Continue reading
What Do Pills Really Do To Change Your Life? At best, a pill can calm or sedate you. Sometimes this might be a good idea, but more often it probably isn’t. If you’re too calm or sedated, how can you … Continue reading
What disturbs me most about the trend towards ‘medication first/medication exclusively’ is not the notion of medication itself. If a pill could cure problems as well as the medical establishment would have us believe, then life would be an effortless … Continue reading
A growing number of research studies are showing that self-esteem might not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Low-achieving students, some studies show, think as highly of themselves as valedictorians. Violent criminals are no more likely to show … Continue reading