Recent Texas court rulings have supported “reasonable possession or access to” a grandchild, as long as it is deemed in “the best interest of the child”. This goes against decades of rulings where grandparents had virtually no rights, regardless of the family situation. This issue is more relevant due to the vast numbers of out...
Category: <span>Family Posts</span>
Holidays are intense times for families with high expectations and often many hours of unstructured time interacting with people you don’t always see regularly. It can be a time of renewal and enjoyment, but also a time where old conflicts emerge and with them the risk for unpleasant interactions, spoiling the hope for Norman Rockwell...
Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be beneficial to heart health by lowering cholesterol and useful in other ailments including arthritis. Many have reported an antidepressant effect, which could mean a way to treat depression without prescription medications. A study and critical review of 916 patients with depression and found Omega-3 fatty acids showed...
Sheingold, a psychoanalyst, coined the term “soul murder” to describe the devastating effects he saw from childhood sexual abuse. It is defined as another person taking from you your ability to enjoy your life. The legacy of unresolved childhood sexual abuse is a damaged sense of self and inability to be at peace internally, combined...
The recent public scandals have brought childhood sexual abuse back into the public spotlight and so often the question is ask by well meaning friends and family, “why can’t they just let it go and get over it.” Sometimes the victims behavior effects them, but more often they cannot fathom the depth of the impact....
The Penn State child sex abuse scandal is now in the news following recent revelations of how the Boy Scouts of America have systematically covered up abuse allegations and protected known abusers for decades. We are still learning of the extent of the abuse and cover ups in the Catholic Church and almost daily learn...
Enabling is term used in systems theory and family therapy work when a family members overt pathology is ignored, or even encouraged, by other members for there own gain or simply to “keep the peace”. It most often applies to families of alcoholics or chemically dependent persons. The family ignores the “elephant in the living...
Chantix is an unique agent which lowers the desire to smoke cigarettes and actually is successful in the cessation of smoking in roughly 1/2 of those completing treatment. It is the first agent to show real promise in stopping smoking. I started using Chantix on my patients when it first became available and had to...
In a recent ceremony in India 285 girls named “Nakusa”, meaning “unwanted”, changed their names to one of their choosing. Like in China, boys are favored in India for variety of cultural and economic reasons and girls are told directly ” we didn’t want you!”. The western version is more subtle in households where one...
Identical twins in Indiana gave birth eight hours apart in the same hospital last week. This sounds contrived, or like a National Inquirer newsfeed, but actually speaks more to the nature of twinning and to the biological contributions to behavior. As a trained psychoanalyst, I can speak to the contributions of development to behavior and...