"Doctors came to see her singly and in consultation, talked much in French, German, and Latin, blamed one another, and prescribed a great variety of medicines for all the diseases known to them, but the simple idea never occurred to any of them that they could not know the disease Natasha was suffering from, as no disease suffered by a live man can be known, for every living person has his own peculiarities and always has his own peculiar, personal, novel, complicated disease, unknown to medicine. "


Posts tagged with 'prejudice'

NICE guidance on promoting mental wellbeing at work

17th December 2009

There are several recent research studies I've come across that highlight the need for better working conditions. Magnusson Hanson & colleagues' research on "Psychosocial working conditions and depressive symptoms among Swedish employees" shows clear links between decision authority, conflict & support and the development of subsequent depressive symptoms, while Nyberg …

Berlin weekend: self-affirmation theory

13th December 2009

All day Friday and all day Saturday exploring Berlin. Then on Saturday evening we went to a reasonable restaurant and this morning - Sunday - I woke with what seems to be a pretty good dose of food poisoning. Humph. Well it's been a peaceful day for me with my …

Recent research: six papers with broad social implications – inequality, health insurance, spanking, bullying, and religion

15th October 2009

Here are half a dozen recent research papers with broad social implications (all details & abstracts to these studies are given further down this blog posting). Kay and colleagues publish on "Inequality, discrimination, and the power of the status quo: Direct evidence for a motivation to see the way things …

Recent research: five papers on depression, stigma, biology, & extending the reach of psychotherapy

2nd April 2009

This set of five papers documents, in part, our mixed viewpoints on depression. Worryingly, Mehta & colleagues show deteriorating public attitudes towards mental illness in England (and to a lesser extent Scotland) between 1994 and 2003. Meanwhile Blumner et al demonstrate a shift towards a more biological view on causes …

Recent research: spiritually modified CBT, happiness & freedom, healthy goal disengagement, and hoarding & OCD

21st August 2008

Hodge, D. R. (2008). "Constructing spiritually modified interventions: Cognitive therapy with diverse populations." International Social Work 51(2): 178-192. [Abstract/Full Text] Although cognitive therapy is widely used, little attention has been given to the value assumptions embedded in the self-statements that are at the heart of the change process. Constructing statements …