The same author also wrote a good article about how the criminal justice
system has refused to be impacted by psychological research. It is titled,
"Under Suspicion" and it is in the Jan 8, 2001 New Yorker on pp. 50-53. I
assigned it in my Cognitive Psych class.
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Goff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 10:57 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Emotions article
Any of you are looking for a popular press article to assign to your
students for emotions should take a look at an article in today's (2/12/01)
New Yorker. The title is Crimson Tide by Atul Gawande. The article presents
a case of an individual who underwent a surgical procedure to eliminate her
overactive blushing response. At a minimum, the article could give you an
opportunity to talk about the role of the sympathetic nervous system in
emotional responses and the James Lange theory of emotion. The radical
approach to treatment of this person's difficulty should also give your
students something to think about with regard to what kinds of treatment are
most appropriate for a psychological problem.
Enjoy
Dennis
Dennis M. Goff
Dept. of Psychology
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Lynchburg VA
-----Original Message-----
From: Annette Taylor [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 11:15 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: FWD: Psychoanalysts Live Longer
Hi Jim and tipsters:
Well, I am really going to go out an a limb here of ignorance, but
my impression is that: and here I take two dreaded "facts" for which
I have no references, and to make it worse, look for a conjoint
probability!
(1) Psychoanalysis tends to be favored by particular ethnic groups,
and in particular, and this is NOT a racist comment, simply MY IMPRESSION
of what I have observed and therefore a simple, nonvalue-laden 'factual'
comment, and in particular by people of Jewish ancestry. I have no
statistics or data to support this impression. It is based on my own
individual personal experience and frankly I am not motivated enough to
pursue the data.
But if this is the case it could be examined along with this 'fact':
(2) I have read many times that Jewish people tend to have a genetic
predisposition to greater longevity. In fact, many of the oldest living
clusters of individuals have Jewish ancestry. Although I have no evidence
to support this finding, I believe it is quite correct as I have heard
it from a number of reputable sources. (Most recently a group of
centenarians being studied is a group of Jewish-ancestry women in New
York).
Hence, here is my horrible conjoint probability: If many psychoanalysts
are of Jewish ancestry, and if people of Jewish ancestry tend to live
longer, then we don't need to look to some of the marvelous benefits of
psychoanalysis to explain this increased longevity among
psychoanalytically oriented therapists. It is simply a conjoint
probability of their occupation and predisposition to longevity based
on ethnic origin and genetics.
Hah! OK, someone please feel free to attack my logic and "facts" , but
please nothing ad hominem.
annette
P.S. note that the article refers to "MEN" are there no women
psychoanalysts????
post P. S. and how can they have a "lower mortality rate"? don't they
EVER die? Or am I reading this wrong?
Is this a poorly written article and I am brain-dead today?
On Fri, 9 Feb 2001, Jim Guinee wrote:
>
> Psychoanalysts Live Longer
>
> New Study Further Links Mind and Body
>
> By Denise Mann WebMD Medical News
>
> Reviewed by Dr. Jacqueline Brooks
>
> Feb. 2, 2001 -- A new study suggests exactly why Sigmund Freud,
> referred to as the father of modern psychoanalysis, may have lived to the
> ripe old age of 83 in a time when the average life span was only about 50
> years.
>
> A soon-to-be published study in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of The
> American Psychoanalytic Association found that psychoanalysts live longer,
> on average, than men in the general population and men in other medical
> specialities.
>
> "We can say that psychoanalysts have a 44% lower death rate than
> medical doctors including psychiatrists and neurologists, and 48%
> lower than men in the general population," says the study's author,
> Edward H. Jeffery, an independent researcher in Northridge, Calif.
>
> Psychoanalysis is based on the observation that individuals are often
> unaware of many of the factors that determine their emotions and behavior.
> These 'unconscious' factors may result in unhappiness, troubling
> personality traits, difficulties in work or in relationships, or
> disturbances in mood and self-esteem. Typically, the patient comes in up
> to four or five times a week, lies on a couch, and attempts to say
> everything that comes to mind. These conditions permit the emergence of
> aspects of the mind that people are not usually immediately aware of.
>
> Analysts and those in analysis hope that all this talk may help
> lessen stress, which is known to have a negative effect on the immune
> system.
>
> Still, the exact reason for the findings are unclear, says Jeffery.
> Perhaps there is something life-extending about talking through
> problems and emotions but "another major variable that may account
> for the lower mortality in this profession is the careful way in
> which psychoanalytic institutes select their candidates for training. They
> reject applicants who seem to have serious psychological problems," he
> says.
>
> Therefore, psychoanalysts may be mentally healthier than the general
> public or even psychiatrists, Jeffery says.
>
> His next step is to try and do a study comparing psychiatrists who
> undergo psychoanalysis to psychiatrists who have not and see how the
> two groups compare in terms of longevity.
>
> In an editorial slated to accompany the new study, Norman Doidge, MD, a
> psychoanalyst at the University of Toronto writes that the new study
> "makes us wonder whether this treatment has the power to prolong life."
>
> He adds that a recent German study found that people undergoing
> psychoanalysis made one-third less medical visits than those that did not,
> and other research found that women with advanced breast cancer who
> participated in weekly group therapy sessions extended their survival
> rates by 18 months.
>
> "Orchestra conductors live longer than other types of professionals
> because they jump around a lot and get exercise, but this doesn't
> account for psychoanalysts," says New York psychoanalyst Arnold David
> Richards, MD, also the editor of the Journal of the American
> Psychoanalytic Association.
>
> "My feeling is that psychoanalysts have all been analyzed and have
> the tools to deal with conflict and stress. This is very positive for the
> immune system and the other systems of the body that have been implicated
> in causing disease," he tells WebMD.
>
> All this talk may spare us from some of the diseases that tend to
> kill people early, Richards says.
>
> The new findings "really speak to the mind-body connection and
> probably the mediator is through the immune system," says Leon
> Hoffman, MD, a New York based child psychoanalyst and the chair of
> the American Psychoanalytic Association's committee on public
> information.
>
> Studies have shown that people with less stress are less prone to
> colds and other illnesses, says Hoffman.
>
> "As we are learning more about the importance of the immune system
> and the connection between psychology and biology, this work
> highlights the importance of trying to deal with psychological issues and
> that they can have a profound effect on physiological health," he says. --
>
>
Annette Taylor, Ph. D.
Department of Psychology E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of San Diego Voice: (619) 260-4006
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
"Education is one of the few things a person
is willing to pay for and not get."
-- W. L. Bryan
