I’d beat you up but I have my good stuff on!

It was my second week of ninth grade (now known as secondary-III) when I overheard a kid in a sports jacket and dress pants glare at another kid and say, “I’d beat you up, but I have my good stuff on.”

Good stuff? What kind of ninth grader dresses up like John Travolta’s Tony Monero? In my time you NEVER dressed up except on “picture” day – and then only if your Mom made you!

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Posted on 13 Sep 2009
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Great Canadian literature?

Hi Folks. Back from vacation. It was nice acting like a kid again (outside most days riding my bike, playing golf, or kayaking). After throwing in plenty of quality time with the family and significant stretches of time spent sitting around scratching my a**, it was perfect.

I’ll keep this post brief. I just wanted to take the opportunity to point out a minor change to this page that you may have noticed. By clicking on the image on the right, you will be able to order a collection of my publications entitled “La Vie en Tranches/Parts of Lives.” (more…)

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Posted on 31 Aug 2009
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Golf green with envy

As a clinical psychologist I normally deal with people’s unwanted emotions (and my own for that matter). Yet the fact is most of our emotional reactions are normal ones, whether they are wanted or not, and they can’t all be “treated.” Sometimes our best option is to live with them…as best we can.

Of course all we can do when we are unhappy is to try to change the things we can and to accept the things we cannot.

Naturally our first instinct is to want to “fix” things and to address the problems we encounter. This is because anything we consider a problem arouses emotions in us. It is this...

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Posted on 07 Aug 2009
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He said WHAT about me?

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to write for a while but as you know, the world was in celebration mode last week. While the French were celebrating Bastille Day on the 14th, we in Canada and the rest of the world were commemorating a much more significant day. I am referring, of course, to Saint Camillo’s day.

I would like to see it declared a national holiday. After all, Saint Camillo de Lellis was the founder of the Brothers of a Happy Death, and what better way to die than to do it happily? He later renamed his group the Order of the Ministers to the Sick but I’m partial the the Happy...

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Posted on 20 Jul 2009
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26

Goldie kicks the bucket!

My friends tell me I have a twisted way of seeing things (they must love me).
Well, since I wouldn’t want to shatter their vision of me, I will continue from where I left off last week and examine another aspect of anxiety as I complete my great animal psychology trilogy. It’s no Lord of the Rings but it’s the best I could do with my limited talents. I call the trilogy Two Rodents and a Fish.!--or--

The two rodent stories of course are Squirrel Psychology and Chipmunk Psychology. The fish story follows.

Goldfish Psychology: Survival of the fraidiest

(source: Dans la tête d’un petit...

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Posted on 07 Jul 2009
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Alvin bites the dust!

I called him Chippy. I’m sure he had a family…don’t all rodents? Do they celebrate Father’s Day? Do they hold tearful memorials for their crushed brethren while Alvin sings Amazing Grace a cappella? Is there a rodentia heaven? These are just some of the existential questions I asked myself following the tragic incident described below. It is not a story for the faint of heart but I felt it was important to tell.

Animal behaviour serves as an excellent illustration of anxiety in all of its aspects. I have already explored squirrel psychology in the past, where I discuss the effect of...

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Posted on 27 Jun 2009
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25

Who ate my muffin?

How long would a platter of chocolate chip muffins last in your office fridge? Well, according to research by Dan Ariely, not long.

Ariely’s research inspired my May 26 column. After he published his book, Predictably Irrational, much of the discussion surrounded some of the more sensational white collar crimes like the Enron fiasco or Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The argument is that theft seems less wrong when people are one layer removed from the actual cash, as his research clearly showed.

It’s all a question of how you see things. Somehow, we lose the connection with an immoral act...

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Posted on 16 Jun 2009
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23

The power of beliefs

A few months ago I was listening to a radio program where an anthropologist was interviewed about a West African village where children were killed on a regular basis. These kids were believed to be inhabited by evil spirits. One had been born with a withered arm. Another was a child whose mother died during delivery, which to the villagers was a clear indication of the evil in the child. No one in the village felt these murders were wrong.

This story reminded me of the kind of thinking that was prevalent in the history mental illness. Faced with the kind of bizarre behaviour that was...

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Posted on 03 Jun 2009
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24

Guaranteed to lose my vote

So it has come to this.

This past Friday I saw a new Conservative Party of Canada attack ad on Michael Ignatieff. Let me just say to the geniuses who think up this garbage: You will never, EVER, get my vote using these pathetic smear tactics! 

I don’t normally delve into politics but the trend toward more and more of these types of ads is extremely disturbing. It mirrors our general level of disrespect for others – the sort of stuff we see in the confessionals of any “reality” TV series.

It was laughable when every American campaign started using this strategy, but at least I was able to...

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Posted on 26 May 2009
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Mistrust: A self-fulfilling prophecy

What’s worse; blind trust or paranoia?

I suppose it depends a great deal on circumstances. If one were living in a war-torn country where suicide bombings and hidden allegiances were common realities, paranoia would certainly serve to protect. But like all psychological states, paranoia and mistrust are double-edged swords. They serve a useful purpose in certain situations while causing major problems in others. Personality traits should not be seen as strengths or weaknesses. Each trait can be a strength or a weakness depending on the circumstances in which they manifest themselves.

This...

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Posted on 19 May 2009
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