Posts by Griffin Hansbury

Freud’s Victorian hysterics have not disappeared. They’re right here–in this amazing story about mass psychogenic illness sweeping through a group of teenage girls in upstate New York. But people are loathe to believe it. They’d prefer the cause to be toxins in the water, poisonous gases in the air, hazardous waste in the soil. They’d rather be…

The New York Times wonders, “Where Have All the Neurotics Gone?” Benedict Carey writes, “For a generation of postwar middle-class Americans, being neurotic meant something more than merely being anxious, and something other than exhibiting the hysteria or other disabling mood problems for which Freud used the term. It meant being interesting (if sometimes exasperating) at a time when…

I wrote a short review of Alison Bechdel’s new graphic memoir, Are You My Mother?, for the e-newsletter of IARPP (International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy). A wonderful book for anyone interested in the analytic process–and mother-child relations. Click here to check it out.

“Numerous findings over the last two decades demonstrate how talk therapy alters the brain. Disabling conditions like clinical depression and anxiety can be treated effectively by understanding distorted patterns of thought, becoming aware of emotional conflicts that have not been conscious, or practicing new behaviors. Talk therapy is a potent treatment for serious mental disorders…

Looking forward to reading The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz, a new book on psychoanalysis–how it works and what it’s like. From the New York Times review by Michiko Kakutani: “…an insightful and beautifully written book about the process of psychoanalysis, and the ways people’s efforts to connect the past, present and future reflect their capacity to…

“Trauma never goes away completely. It changes perhaps, softens some with time, but never completely goes away. What makes you think you should be completely over it? I don’t think it works that way…” “…Trauma is not just the result of major disasters. It does not happen to only some people. An undercurrent of trauma…

While Eastern meditation instructs us to empty our minds of thought, Philosophical Meditation instructs us on how to analyze our thoughts to create more calm and less anxiety: “At heart, it doesn’t believe that the contents of our minds are nonsensical or meaningless. Our worries may seem like a nuisance but they are in fact neurotically…

Why is it so hard to show our true selves to the people we love and trust the most? From Philosophers’ Mail: “where we don’t ‘communicate’ a message, we still manage to get our points across, but just in toxic forms. As the expression goes, we ‘act out.’ Unable to pin down in a rational form…

Another good article from Philosopher’s Mail, this one on the benefits of therapy. Reason #3 is often the most helpful: Therapy bolsters a sane inner voice In the course of our lives, we will without doubt be exposed to a cast of terrible role models – and are at risk of internalising their unhelpful – but…

The constant intrusion of electronic communications–Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, online dating sites, and more–can keep us from being creative and connected to our own thoughts. Here’s some good advice for managing distractions and organizing your mind, from Daniel J. Levitin, author of “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload”: “Every status update…