Category: Human development
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. The recent California judicial decision upholding Prop. 8 has inflamed very strong emotional reactions all along the socio-political spectrum regarding the relationship between civil liberties and the private realm of sexuality.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. America, in its relative youthfulness, still perceives itself as morally, politically and militarily invincible, devoid of the stabilizing historical context that might actually insure the retention of its truly consequential status.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. The very unstable economic surround in which we now find ourselves has unleashed an epidemic of anxiety-related complaints. Stomach upsets, irritability, sleep disturbances, hives and rashes and unpleasantly intrusive thoughts or mental imagery have become increasingly common even among the usually serene and composed.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Much has been written lately about impulsive behavior, particularly excessive spending or shopping, as its problematic consequences have become increasingly obvious as our economy continues to implode.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Most of us would agree that balanced concern for self and others constitutes a measure of psychological maturity and health. While other, mostly mammalian, species share our capacity to live cooperatively and care for one another, only human beings are able to reflect consciously upon this […]
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. Greed is not a word used frequently any more. Tending to be associated with quaintly prim eras and Victorian novels, the sooty world of Charles Dickens comes to mind with its pickpockets and severe judgments.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. One more time… Once again, thin veneers of public pose have cracked exposing very private lives. So common as to be utterly prosaic, another powerful politician has been caught in an extramarital tryst with a political groupie, a less dominant woman aroused by power.
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. “He’s gotten completely paranoid and is speaking in vernacular I don’t recognize,” my friend explained slowly and evenly, though clearly in an anxious state. “The psychiatrist put him on medication, and I don’t know why. I think he’s having a bad reaction.”
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register A screenwriter friend gave me an article discussing the salutary aspects of sadness and the ways in which our contemporary culture tends to quickly erase it or prematurely foreclose upon its gritty psychological usefulness in a quest for perennial cheery happiness. As if happiness were a […]
This column originally appeared in the Orange County Register. We are too often saturated with regrettable accounts of public figures exposed in salacious but banal trysts. Illicit sex sells. What a thumping bore.