Psychiatry and Psychology

An extract from a book I am occasionally working on. It will prob never be finished as I will never have enough material to fill it :¬P The more you do something the less meaningful it becomes. It fades, no longer so enjoyable, no longer vivid. You need something more, that something becomes the new upper limit of your experience and the old thing becomes mundane. The further back you look the harder it is to judge how intense others will find things. While you are uninterested with your old tired experiences you are still afraid to push too hard into new ones. You are though driven by necessity to go a little further. You then enjoy that new intensity of experience f…

What causes Deja Vu? (short and to the point )

I'm 16 years old and ever since I was about 5 or 6 I would have hallucinations about twice a year. I noticed that it commonly happens when I'm really hot and sweating or when I have a fever. The hallucinations are about very random things. My most recent one was when I woke up and I saw a tall dark figure walk quickly past the door. A few minutes later (still in the hallucination state) I walked downstairs with my blanket and put it on a chair. Next, I walked back upstairs (still in the hallucination state), layed in my bed, and I thought "where did the blanket go?". Then I started searching all over for it. I then thought "maybe I left it downstairs". Then I went dow…

This came up in conversation the other day, and I'm trying to pin down exactly what it is. If somebody has had a habit, or fervent belief in something and it changes e.g they used to smoke, and have now given up, or they used to be a devout Catholic and they're now an Atheist, I've noticed they're a lot more vocal / opinionated / advocated towards this change. This certainly isn't about religion, but to bring the argument close to home (SFN) they're are members who I know were brought up within religious families, and have (for whatever reason) decided it wasn't for them, have certainly been more vocal and ardent about their new found position. That certainly is…

Just finished reading an interesting article in New Scientist : 30 August 2008 page 34. The theme is the way people let their emotions dictate their conclusions, even when rational thinking would dictate something quite different. The first bit of this article is found on : http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19926711.500-how-to-keep-your-head-in-scary-situations.html I expect the full text will become available in due course, after readers of the paper versions have moved on. An example of what they are talking about is the travel decisions of people after 9/11. In the 12 months following, many Americans chose to drive rather than fly, lead…

What is this phenomenon that binds chaos and facts in such an orderly way sometimes, involuntarily, but with all of the rhyme and reason of sentient art? How does it happen so eloquently sometimes? Many times, you just have to reach in any direction to whatever extent to apply it to something going on in your life, but sometimes, it is there in bold lights on the marquis like there is something more. Recently, now that I finally have a straight answer about the pathology of this cancer that lives on in my spinal cord, I have been heavily researching ways to defuse it chemically. I have found some promising avenues via radiation, interferons, and superantioxidants…

Reading about accounts of Near Death Experiences it is difficult to be rational and scientific about the anecdotes of what people claim to have experienced. For example, this account is quite interesting and apparently occurred when brain activity was at a 'standstill': http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence01.html Is this evidence for a soul? However, I want to hear other views about it and also for suggestions about experiments that can be performed to provide evidence for NDE's.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/080811_pride.htm "Blind athletes who have never seen a victory celebration raise their arms in triumph when they win and slump their shoulders when they lose, much like sighted athletes, researchers have found." When suggesting that pride and shame behavioural expressions are cross cultural and universal. I wonder if they took into account the culture of competitive sports which is a subculture in itself? They seem to shoot themselves in the foot when the say that western athletes display shame differently. Making behaviour not so universal then after all.

Hi, Please could anyone tell me why a psychiatrist would suddenly start making quick eye movements, repeatedly in the same direction, whilst their patient is talking? This is some kind of 'test' I assume. But what kind(s) of patient(s) would they do this with? Or to assertain what kind of information would they do it? If you can tell me the name of the 'test,' if it has one, and any other information then that would be really great. Thanks.

I don't know a whole lot about human behavior, so I want to know the psychological basis behind the need to be correct about a given idea. Specifically, what could drive a person so far that they would be willing to die for a given set of beliefs or ideology even if it is complete nonsense? Or even worse, that they would be willing to kill someone else for their beliefs? You see this phenomenon most often with religious cults, even if their set of beliefs specifically preaches tolerance.

some of the best information about psychiatry on youtube. It's a Brain Thing http://www.youtube.com/user/henleydb Neuroscience (physiology) hons student http://www.youtube.com/user/nervousneuron just smart person http://www.youtube.com/user/theowarner

I've always been puzzling over this, and I know it seems silly at first, but do violent videogames really make people more aggressive? Answers can be based on studies or opinion. Thanks everyone.

I want to be very clear that this thread is not about "religion," per se, but I found this study to be tremendously interesting. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080903134209.htm One of the few studies to look at the effects of religious participation on the mental health of minorities suggests that for some of them, religion may actually be contributing to adolescent depression. Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging. But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, part…

g'day, looking for some information on the psychology of questions. my belief is that the human brain cannot not answer a question if it hears or sees the question. eg: what does 2 plus 2 equal? (provided you read that question, you also answered it. that process is difficult to stop) anyway, looking for some info / research into this sort of thing. thanks in advance.

I wasn't sure where to post this... Being a former practicing Buddhist, I used to meditate regularly. We all know the regular benefits of meditation such as better circulation and respiration along with lowering stress, etc. But, I read once a very long time ago (don't recall where or I'd read it again) that, deep meditation, in some instances is just as good as a short nap. Has anyone ever heard of this and is there any validity to it?

Wasn't too sure where to put this, maybe belongs in physiology/neuroscience ? I tried searching for this last night, but I was very tired so probably overlooked something...anyway, what I was wondering, have there been any studies in to what happens in the brain when there's that eureka moment. I realize this maybe a hard moment to capture under lab conditions, but certainly not impossible. I'm coming to the end of my applied maths course, and I've had many 'forehead slapping' moments, when it seems the problem I was struggling on suddenly fits into place, or a certain principle suddenly clicks and 'I get it.' I can't really pin point whether it's a combinatio…

As part of my PhD at the University of York, I'm currently conducting an online study looking at personality traits and social behaviours. I am looking to recruit a large cross-section of high-functioning participants (so I figure where better than a science forum). All participants will be entered into a prize draw for up to £50 of Amazon gift vouchers, and the warm feeling of helping out a poor PhD student and advancing our knowledge of human personality. If you are interested in taking part go to: this page and follow the instructions on screen. If people are interested, I will post a short summary of my results to the message board once the data analysis…

Hi, I am conducting studies into the discrimination of lies and truthful statements and have a short online survey at http://www.surveyshare.com/survey/take/?sid=74217 The studies are part of my Phd research in the school of Psychology at the University of Nottingham If you could spare 20 minutes of your time to test your lie detection skills, I would be very grateful. thankyou. Patrick Brundell

Okay ive tried a couple drugs like acid once and a few other drugs. When your on these drugs, your perception of time is slowed down. and with other drugs it's sped up. Now this is what happens when your brain reacts to certain drugs. now what if that means, our brain controls our perception of time. if anyone here has ever been in a fight, or had an big accident or fell off a bike. sometimes, time just slows directly down.. like impossibly slow, if time was like that an hour would feel like weeks. that means time is merely a perception. Now our brain is amazingly advanced. what if time was constantly fluxuating, moving back in time forth. constantly moving minutes, …

Why do humans engage in such baseless argumentative tactics as simple as applying ideological labels? We've all seen it. In politics, in science, and other areas of life. "The NYTimes is a liberal rag." "Rush Limbaugh is a rightie nutbag." "Anthropogenic global warming supporters are a bunch of hippie tree huggers." There are countless others, but that's not what this thread is about. Why do we argue with labels so often instead of content? Further, why are so many people convinced by the label instead of the content? I hope you will share your opinions freely and add to this discussion.

I got a friend in security that's trying to find some info (articles/books/presentations/etc) for an upcoming course. Here's the info he sent me: "I'm interested in sociopathic and other aberrant behaviors in the workplace, either by employees or visitors, especially early behavioral signals or warnings of impending criminal or terrorist behavior. The audience is security personnel and department managers, and it's an "awareness" level 4-hour training course. We're not trying to develop profiling experts. The specific driver for the course request from this client is that analysis of a workplace incident has shown that in retrospect there were clues, going back f…

Not to start another thread about pedophiles and such but I was having a discussion with another officer and was wondering, among all the cases of internet based sexual solicitations between adolescents and adults are there any cases someone here can point me to that shows where in a small percentage of the cases (and I know it will be a very small percentage) the adolescent was the aggressor?

Can emotion be explained scientifically? I havent done alot of research into this area of psychology, but have found that it is usually only philosophied by society with no real scientific definition and explanation. It might sound stupid but i dont really go for the whole bad explanation of "feelings" as an explanation. A link will do if you dont fancy explaining it... Thanks

i kno wat it is but what causes it like how it is possible to see your self in a place or situation then actually being in that place or situation in the future ????? i have a theory but i want to hear yours thnx

I took a second job at a juvenile facility and the program works on something called "directive therapy". Now, in the 5 years prior I'd worked in this field, I have never come across this. Has anyone else heard of it? Opinions about it vs. other forms of therapy?