True Grit

Never, ever give up.This is my favorite study of 2007. Angela Duckworth and company have explored that which keeps us going in the face of long odds. Call it perseverance, determination, tenacity; they call it grit. I love that word, all full of optimism and spirit. …

Dial M for Misinterpretation: Psychology’s Latest Attack on Conservatives

Q: In light of your previous intellectual truck-bombings of such junk-psych as the “conservative crybaby” study, I was interested in getting your opinion on a new study put out by NYU and UCLA’s psych departments claiming that the brains of left-wingers are more “tolerant of ambiguity and conflict” than those of right-wingers, based on a simple letter-recognition test.

How To Tell If Your Therapist Is Crazy (Part Two)

do therapists need help?As tempting as it is to believe that most mental health workers are wacky and maladjusted, the data tell a different story. For the most part, we seem to be fairly sane. Our downfall, in my sometimes overbearing opinion, is that we have a tendency toward muddled thinking. Our logic chips are frequently on the fritz, and it is our patients who pay the price in time, money, and heartache. …