Psychology

To be science, there must be a theoretical foundation. What does psychology lack? A theoretical foundation. In fact, the only true theoretical foundation of psychology is widely derided by psychologists and psychiatrists alike, yet much of the world can only name one person in the field - and that person is Dr. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Mark Solms, Ph.D., is the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and founder of the journal Neuropsychoanalysis, and at the upcoming National Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association on January 20th he will review…

Everyone has heard of the hangover, it is that sluggish feeling after drinking too much alcohol- A group of psychologists now contend that emotional experiences can induce physiological and internal brain states that persist for long periods of time after the emotional events have ended. In other words, your emotions can cause a hangover.  This has an element of common sense. Most people at some time or another have felt "drained" after emotional experiences, and we remember them, because emotional experiences are better remembered than non-emotional ones. In the new study, the…

#1. The Democrat Party Will Become the Party of Angry Black People When Obama came along, he brought with him a new ideology: the Democrat Party would now be the party of Black people who are unhappy about being Black in America. No, Obama himself was not an overtly angry Black person. On the surface, he was ‘no drama Obama’. But, underneath that cool exterior lay a decidedly passive-aggressive university professor who ardently believed all the same things that all Black American university professors believe nowadays about white people, their colonial ways, and the unending guilt-trip for…

When I was a college professor, I used to tell my students the normal world is a crazy place. It’s still true. Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. According to Howard Becker (1963) “an unknown, but probably quite large, number of people in the United States use marihuana. They do this in spite of the fact that it is both illegal and disapproved” (p. 41). You may notice that research was conducted over 50 years ago. Becker performed his famous research at the end of the 1950s and it was published in book form in 1963. Yet, in all the time since then, virtually…

One of the many classics in social psychology from the mid-20th century was Leon Festinger’s When Prophecy Fails (1956). The point of the study was to infiltrate a doomsday cult. It was a cult whose leader had declared the world would come to an end on a specific day. Festinger had his assistants ingratiate themselves to the point of being accepted by the members enough to be able to bear witness to the goings on of the cult. The real interest was centered around the day after – what would these people do the day after doomsday? When the last day of existence had come and gone, what would…

Judit Polgar - Immortal Chess Champion Congratulations to the Immortal  Magnus Carlsen New 2016  World Chess Champion! Chess might not seem any different than any other sport or game, but there is an important difference. In chess, one competes alone, and it is a very drawish game, so it is expected that no one will always win. That means there is an element of variation that could be influenced by almost anything. It means you always have a chance to win, but you will probably lose and tie as often as you win. It also means that you end up playing not-to-lose. At high…

  United States 2016 women’s chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes has the guts to stand up to Iran! Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen  New 2016 World Chess Champion! Speaking out of both sides of my mouth at the same time, there is no one skill that is easily had and affords a person mastery of chess. There is obviously a constellation of intelligences, a skill set that is required, but there is no fairness in minimizing chess mastery and saying it is only one thing and either you have it or you don’t. In short, you have to work like a dog to make chess master, and by the…

The top picture is of former European Women's Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. It is there to show chess has become quite sexy. Magnus Carlsen has spent his entire life since being a youngster constantly reminding us that it is still quite smart, too! Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen – New 2016 World Chess Champion! “Chess, the eminently cerebral game, is even thought provoking in ways unrelated to the movement of pieces on the board.” Truer words were never spoken. So, begins a piece on chess intelligence by Erk Lief of the American Council on Science and Knowledge. It turns out…

There’s a widespread belief that actually existing democracies are in the grip of a fast-paced world dominated by breaking news and all things instant. The following contribution sets out to question this belief. It takes readers on a time journey. It sets out to probe the meaning of time, and explains why time has a malleable quality. It asks why time is a political matter and why, when they function well, democracies do intriguing things to people’s shared sense of time. The text is a revised version of a presentation to the international conference, The Toronto School: Then, Now, Next held…

After one of the most divisive presidential elections in American history, many of us may be anxious about dinner-table dialogue with family and friends this Thanksgiving. There is no denying that the way we communicate about politics has fundamentally changed with the proliferation of technology and social media. Twitter bots, fake news and echo chambers are just a few of the highlights from this election season. Much of how we’re conversing online can’t – and shouldn’t – be replicated around the family table. We are getting out of practice at conducting meaningful, respectful conversation.…