Are AA’s Twelve Steps for Everyone?
The idea that complete abstinence from mind-altering substances is necessary for recovery from addiction – the hallmark of treatments like Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous – is under threat. For younger Americans dealing with addiction to opioids...Lessons From a Young Condor
When I attended university thirty years ago with an interest in science, the curriculum’s focus was both the subject matter and how to view the world objectively. It was an education for worlds unknown to me — the social lives of insects, the intricacies of human...What is the function of the brain?
Based on her ethnographic study of psychiatric residency programs, anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann concluded psychiatry is “of two minds,” much like the Axis I and Axis II diagnoses organizing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While some...Too Stressed to Meditate?
Buddhist psychology claims there are three primary emotions or sensations — pleasant, painful, and neutral. Arising from these primary emotions are our reactions to them, the so-called secondary emotions. For example, we might feel desire or joy in...The Eternal Marriage
My husband and I have been together almost 36 years, 32 of them married. We know couples past the 50-year point. Some like to trump our landmark. “Pshaw. Newlyweds.” But in a nation where half of marriages end in divorce, and about half the people wanting a...
