Reflections on Psychiatry, Therapy, and Mental Health

The little fellow above is an American Caesar Mushroom that I met in the forest before the pandemic started. She is considered a choice edible, and often is consumed raw with a little olive oil and balsamic. Even more striking than her taste is her beauty. I was attracted to the forest because of mushrooms, but once in the forest and familiar with its ambience, I began to hear people refer to forest wandering as, 'forest bathing,' and I began to realize that I was not the

Future discounting, also often referred to as temporal discounting, is a curious behavior in which all of us to a degree value a thing in the present more than that very same thing when access to it is delayed. For example, if I offer you 100 dollars now, and promise that if you hold of I'll giv you 150 dollars in a week, how much is the 150 worth to you at the moment you are making the decision between the two. It has been consistently observed that people with addictive pr

While in the middle of a therapy session a patient who is opening up his soul to a therapist might wonder from time to time wonder, what is my therapist thinking about me? The question is rather general. We might do better by asking, how does a therapist think in responding to what a patient says? Let's first make the assumption that the patient is in the hands of a good therapist. Defining a 'good therapist,' is something that has written about a good deal in mental healt