Psychiatry and Psychology

I though this subject would be more fitting for a social-sciences/sociology category, but there is none. Conversation Analysis is the study of the structure of verbal and non-verbal dialogue. According to the Wikipedia article, researchers analyse video-recorded dialogue. I read that Noam Chomsky thought conversation was too disorganized for in-depth analysis. http://en.wikipedia....sation_analysis The idea of people "enlist[ing] various mechanisms to obtain turns" sounds interesting. As always, I would appreciate book recommendations, although I'm not willing to spend much.

I remember a dream i had the other night where i even went past death, Afterwards my family could still hear me but not see me. As a spirit i roamed alone until another person that was closer to the family died as well. But i don't believe he was as inside of the direct family as i was just a cousin or known friend. We could then see each other again and roamed together. I was not so panicked after i had died but i do not remember moment of death so well. I believe i had an increased heart rate for sure. I could give more details if necessary. I was told that if you actually DIE in a dream you die in your sleep due to heart attack or something like that.

This came my way this morning and I found it interesting, so thought I'd share. http://neurosciencenews.com/analytic-thinking-decrease-religious-belief-psychology-study This outcome strikes me as somewhat obvious, but perhaps a bit damning now that it's been supported with empiricism and neuroscience. Aren't they saying that you must avoid reflection and analysis to maintain religious belief? Isn't it a consequence of this work that being unquestioning and willing to follow others uncritically are required for religious belief? It's the intuitive shortcut piece that I think speaks to the specious nature of most religious mindsets.

Agree? Disagree? Discuss.

I am really worried about my smelling disorder on soaps, especially on detergents. This has started since I was 11 years old and until now that I am 32. Whenever I go to the supermarket, I would really go to the soap are and smell the soaps there. I would open the bottles and sniff like a dog. I make sure that I have soaps in my cabinet. I tried to avoid this but it seems the stronger I resist the stronger I want it more. What is this kind of disorder?

A person has no pulse but he is continuously speaking in his lying position can psychology elucidate ?

In light of my recent upset in a thread where I was referred to as a man I thought I might open a thread to maybe address my issues and get some feedback on my situation. This is something I might have tried to do before so if I have, well . . . A little background, I am a transgendered woman. That is all . . . hahaha no really little background. . . I've known I've had a sexual identity issue since I was young, the details of this are probably unnecessary here. I started seeing psychologists and psychiatrists when I was about twelve years old, but this was for general social problems one of which was my sexual identity issue. There is a lot of debate about …

many of you guys saw this heart breaking videos. I'm sure most the gals will cry when they see this videos. The Paralyzed Lion Cub earch this "The Paralyzed Lion Cub" title on youtube I have my touchy moment for this video too. However, I immediately ask myself this question. Why do I have this feeling. The lions usually eat other animals alive. I mean it if you see the video of a buffalo being eaten by lions alive. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Dxu8n2iSO58 I saw that video too but still I have more sympathy on this paralyzed lion cub than that buffalo. Lions are the curliest animal in the wild and they prey on animals everyday even their own. Is thi…

Hi all! Psychological/sociological graduate researcher here. I'm not a fan of self-promotion, but I have recently launched an interactive research website that I believe would be of interest to forum members here. I'm currently working with Professor James Evans at the University of Chicago, and we're trying to collect and analyze the natural language people use when describing what they believe constitutes a meaningful, fulfilling, satisfying, or otherwise worthwhile life. A preliminary survey we deployed last month already generated some fascinating results (we're very excited), but we need more data. I've put in a lot of effort to make the website interactive, and…

In December of 2010, I revealed some of my fantasies -- about retaliating against society's unfair codes -- to my folks because I was planning to discuss these thoughts with my psychiatrist. They advised me against it because [they claim] psychologists, therapists, and psychiatrists -- and other creeps who run the mental health businesses -- will reveal my thoughts to the authorities even if: 1. I haven't broken any laws 2. I haven't threatened to break any laws 3. I'm not a danger to anyone -- including myself According to my folks, these thoughts will then be used against me in the court of law if -- in the the unlikely-but-theoretically-possible -- event that…

Throughout history psychologists have made some controversial claims. Until the early 20th century is was generally agreed that masturbation was harmful, resulting in male circumcision (still practised today) and even clitoridectomy. Black people were 'proven' to be mentally inferior to whites, justifying segregation and their mistreatment. Homosexuals were considered mentally ill and subjected to hormone therapy. How can we be certain that today's 'experts' are not simply justifying societies prejudices? Despite great variation in age of consent laws (ranging from 18 in USA to 14 in Germany) most experts consider consensual sex to be inherently harmful to persons und…

Hi: I've known for a long time that I'm not part of any gender. I'm *not* part of any of the following groups: 1. Male 2. Female 3. Intersex 4. Hermaphrodite However, I'm trapped in a body that society defines as "male". Despite my genderlessness, I do NOT at all want to go through any gender-related surgery. I have the following strong beliefs: 1. There is more to gender than simply "male" or "female" -- [for example I don't feel like I'm male or female]. There are hermaphrodites, non-gendered persons [like me], intersexed, etc. 2. Genitalia does not determine gender [i maybe male "down there", but my gender is anything other than male, female…

Hi: I can easily control what I say and do. However, I feel I have no control over how I think. This is what causes me to go crazy when confronted with the gender-discrimination I've previously spoken of. When I perceive such unfair treatment, I lose my sense of right vs. wrong and this has gotten my into trouble in a variety of forums & message boards -- including this one. Some fora have outright perma-banned me. I am taking medications -- such as anti-depressants and anti-anxieties -- to help attenuate my self-pity, increase my expectations of myself, and decrease my expectations of those around me. Sadly, they don't always work, and I end up venting on the…

Sternberg's factor analysis of love seems to be the most popular study(ies). I briefly read of there being a similar study with similar results. I will love you if you tell me where I can read about the details of any such studies. Passionately, I would love to see a graph, list of data, etc. which represents the correlations in the factor analysis. If the explicit summaries are in books, I might buy the books if they're attractive.

Stress generally inactivates the immune system.Would you think stress can also activate the same?

I was noticing that the TV series Farscape (which I believe is Australian) runs about 50 minutes per episode, which would seem to leave 10 minutes of the hour for commercials. In the US, most of our hour slot shows run about 42 minutes, leaving 18 minutes for commercials. It got me to thinking that perhaps the US consumes more than other countries because we're exposed to so much more advertising. To possibly connect this exposure to the psychology of commercial pressure to consume, I'd like to hear from other countries and find out what the ratio of show to commercials is. Remember, since you're here at SFN, you're not the average couch potato who is most heavil…

I remember learning years back, in one of my psyc courses, that schizophrenic symptoms arises from traumatic experiences, but that one has to have the schizophrenic gene to begin with - otherwise, the only pathology that would result from trauma is PTSD. I can't remember, though, if this was just the most widely held hypothesis or it was an established fact, backed by substantial amounts of research. What's the current concensus on this?

I am a 40 yr old female with a sudden craving for chemical smells. I don't know where this came from, but for some reason I'm severely craving smells. I can watch a commercial on household cleaners and my mouth just waters! I don't get high from the smells. I am not pregnant and I do not do drugs. I just can't get over this sudden urge to sniff everything that has harsh chemicals in it. I went to a tire store the other day to smell the tire showcase. I would drink Pine Sol, but I know it would hurt me. I want to eat dirt and love to get behind old trucks leaking black exhausts!! What is this all about?! I'm really concerned about this. I haven't resorted to eat…

Hi everyone, for the last few years i have been thinking about free will and i realized that the unconscious mind controls the being's behavior by releasing specific chemicals to lure the being into doing something or avoid something else , like making the having the urge to eat and how the unconscious mind inject "positive chemicals" if the being eats or inject "negative chemicals" which generates pain if he doesn't .and other feelings where they all drive the being into reproducing with strong spouses in order to preserve the species , so this have been causing some issues in my life like depression and some other bad stuff , and i was wondering if i will able one day t…

I think high dopamine:serotonin predisposes brains to think they're doingwhat they're supposed to be; lets get some metabolite studies -neurotransmitter degradation products are assayable in bodily fluids. In a Freudian context, this is different than the delusion that one ismaking all events happen. Not environmental mnemonics, Gestalt psychology seemslike semiotic Kung Fu. I much prefer Divine Wind, reified using a gentlebehaviorist model.

I thought it would be appropriate to put a post about this in this section. Basically, for those of you who don't know, Autism is a neurological disorder that interferes with the ability to communicate. Symptoms include delayed speech or language impairment, poor social skills, some features of obsessive compulsive disorder(s), and in some cases (usually low functioning autism), deficiencies in cognitive abilities. I put this up mainly because I have high functioning autism. More specifically, I have Asperger's Syndrome, which is on the mild side of the autistic spectrum disorders. High functioning autism basically means that the person does not have any cogniti…

Parapraxis, the slip of the tongue that may signal an unconscious train of thought. I saw this one today and it occurred to me that this happens from time to time here. We used to call this Typo of the Week, or Mistake of the Month. Feel free to compile any others from SFN that you run across. No judgements, no finger-pointing please. Just meant for fun and ridicule, mwa-ha-ha.

So, psychopathy is a super popular idea with recent positive fictional portrayals such as Dexter. But, after taking online versions of the PCLR and and the LSRP which are tests that assist in the diagnoses of psychopathy I am somewhat skeptical that it exists. Yes, the PCLR is very predictive of recidivism rates for convicts, but it seems to me like it gets it power only from collecting a bag of negative life experiences -such as childhood criminality- while would all of course contribute to later adult criminality. I have been looking for evidence that psychopaths do not actually feel emotions and have been coming up short. I found studies like this one where individuals…

In another forum I had noticed at least two mentions of V2K. Apparently in "popular" parlance it is an acronym for "voice to skull". I googled V2K, and my browser recommended the addition of "mind control". I got hundreds of hit's. All fairly consistent in their subject matter, concerning mind control, gang stalking, etc... There appears to be a monumental body of social activity around "V2K", comparable to "UFO's", "ghost's", etc... There also appears, unsurprisingly, to be a significant correlation between belief in V2K and schizophrenia. I have yet to formulate a definitive question concerning these observations, but I think it is fascinating to consider the implic…

I remember reading some time ago about a debate between Pinker and some lady on the topic of nature vs nurture. I think the debate was either at MIT or Harvard (or maybe somewhere else) and apparently this debate had some degree of fame. Does anyone know if there's video of this anywhere? I'll take any debates or talks on this subject you can offer. The reason I'm looking for video not text is that I want to play it in the background while I'm doing something else. Also, I would in particular be curious to learn about things which were found to be affected by nurture (whether you can give me a link to text or video).