ORANGE MAN SERIES
In February, I awoke from a nightmare with a vision that the country, without anyone realizing it, had taken on the orange coloration produced by DJT’s facial tanning lotion.
In February, I awoke from a nightmare with a vision that the country, without anyone realizing it, had taken on the orange coloration produced by DJT’s facial tanning lotion.
We would still be competing for dominance over our cousins in our African refuges
Leavened by fresh ideas, vivid clinical vignettes, and narratives of the emotional life of our ancient human ancestors
The same experiences of mental illness stigmatized through the ages become ancient beacons illuminating a fresh and uplifting vision of Who We Are.
The mentally ill should be honored for paying the price for our extraordinary mental capacities.
CREDITS: (GRAPHIC) A. CUADRA/SCIENCE; EUROPE’S LOST FRONTIERS PROJECT/EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL; (PHOTOS, LEFT TO RIGHT) NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES (ROM) LEIDEN (1); MANON BRUININGA Article by Andrew Curry, Science 31 Jan 2020: Vol. 367, Issue 6477, pp. 499-503
Justice is the one virtue indispensable to productive social engagement because justice is the collective instinct naturally selected to allow the benefits of productive social engagement to take root and blossom
While I can only imagine watching the early hominins from afar, I can easily place myself among these early Homo people. Crouching in a circle, we are all glancing back and forth, not merely imitating one another’s work, but watching for strokes made with the authority of how it should be and always had been …
From: January 10, 2020 issue of Science; GRAPHIC: N. DESAI/SCIENCE FROM B. BRASSEUR For outstanding movies of ancient migrations: click here
HOW COULD YOU BE SO ANGRY AT ME
Like the shadows in Plato’s cave, the genes, chemistry, and cognitive computations inside the brain are diffuse reflections from the evolution of emotions and motivations “outside” in the theater of human minds interacting with human minds.
As a psychiatrist, over the course of many decades treating patients with severe mental illnesses, I have wondered why humans are plagued with these problems. My explorations led me to develop the theory I present in this essay. The essence of my theory is that mental illnesses are among the many unfortunate side effects of …
I have written a book that describes my version of human nature and has many “moving parts,” but writing it was the easy, fun part. After you finish writing a book, you have to come up with an “elevator” description (short enough to get through during the ride). The main task is to refrain from …
The proposal in this book that I am most adamant about is that justice is a collective human instinct (in addition to our individual ape instincts to dominate). Justice is not just something we dreamed up as Yuval Harari would have us believe in his book, Sapiens. Justice has been naturally selected over millions of …
I have been running this blog since 2012 with one blog/week until last Spring when I took a “leave of absence” to complete the final summary of the blog’s thinking in a short book, which is to bepublished soon. The central thesis is that justice is a collective human instinct that has evolved over the …
All manner of rhetorical flourishes and beautifully constructed phrases can pour out in a torrent. Often there is a magnetic quality to this verbal virtuosity, the meaning (semantics) of which can constitute a brilliantly creative flight of ideas. Beyond the grammar and meaning, the sheer musicality of it can elicit rapt fascination.
Forty-five years ago, while in my psychiatric residency, I moonlighted at DC General Hospital’s emergency room. I never knew ever knew who would come in the doors down there at the General. The “White House cases” were a staple, a motley collection of characters pulled off the fence surrounding the presidential residence. One evening is …
A follow-on to the last post. When multicellular organisms were first expanding their internal complexity five hundred million years ago, neurological systems were evolved to co-ordinate their behavior. The key is rapid and continuous real-time communication to all constituents of the organism. How could such communication have been established in the first hominin group-organisms? To …