Mind and Body - Page 65

November 27, 2015

Shocking News About Human Behavior

During the 1960s, psychologist Stanley Milgram set out to study how obedient human beings can be to authority. Three months after the start of the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, he set up an experiment designed to determine whether ordinary people could be coaxed to inflict suffering on innocent people simply because they were ordered to do so.

November 27, 2015

Inside the Minds of Rod Blagojevich and Bernie Madoff

The brazenness of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich allegedly attempting to sell a U.S. Senate seat and securities trader Bernie Madoff allegedly bilking investors (including charities) of about $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme may seem inexplicable. But having evaluated dozens of white-collar criminals and very violent offenders over the past decade (and having testified about them in local, state and federal courts), I've realized many of them share recognizable psychological characteristics with convicted murderer Scott Peterson. Peterson, you will recall, is the Modesto, California man who murdered his wife Laci and his unborn child Conner in the midst of an affair with massage therapist Amber Frey, then helped lead the search for his victims.

November 27, 2015

Pop a Pill to Boost Your Brain Chemistry?

Several brain scientists recently wrote in the journal Nature (published online December 7) that it is time that science and society explore and, ultimately, sanction the use of pills to enhance brain function in people with no psychiatric disorder at all. After all, they reason, pills already exist that can improve attention span, memory and alertness in normal individuals. Many students already use illegally obtained Adderall to boost their academic performance, and many adults use Provigil to stay awake and energetic at work. So why not sanction the use of these drugs and, perhaps, many others to help anyone who might want to perform better and feel better?

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: High School Ethics - Honesty is Out

A startling new study from the Josephson Institute, an ethics think tank in Los Angeles, reveals that 64 percent of today's high school students report having cheated on a test in the past year, while 30 percent have stolen from a store.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: Those Who Watched Internet Suicide Have Problems Too

The last moments of Abraham Biggs' nineteen years of life were broadcast live via the Internet on Justin.tv.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: Lessons Learned From Nebraska's Safe Haven Law

Sometimes, making a mistake teaches an invaluable lesson. And so it is with the loophole in Nebraska's "safe haven" law, a statute that allows parents to drop off children at hospital emergency rooms if they are unable to care for them. The trouble is, Nebraska lawmakers neglected to define "child." So far, 34 children, some of them as old as 17, have been dropped off, including two teenagers just last Thursday.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: Can an 8-Year-Old Be a Murderer?

Police in St. Johns, Ariz., allege that an 8-year-old boy gunned down his father, Vincent Romero, and his father's co-worker, Timothy Romans, using a .22-calibre rifle. They say the crime was planned and methodically carried out. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek to try the 8-year-old as an adult.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: The High Drama of a Presidential Election

Barack Obama's historic election as president caps an unprecedented campaign that broke through racial and socioeconomic barriers and has changed America forever. His victory will fuel the self-esteem and hopes of many millions - not only minorities, but all those who yearn for the kind of interconnectedness that can only be achieved when each of us is judged for his or her inherent potential, not prejudged by prejudice of any kind. Obama's victory also comes at a time when truth and reality are under assault on many fronts. Americans are suffering the fallout of economic fictions that took hold of the mortgage and banking and financial management industries, much as they once distorted the valuations of Internet companies. The Internet itself and other technologies-like instant messaging-are cleaving us from the human nuances of face-to-face and even voice-to-voice communication. We are using prescribed medications at ever-increasing rates to quiet our unwieldy anxiety and mood swings and insomnia and distractibility. Illicit drug use is up, transporting increasing numbers of young people away from the facts of their lives, toward illusion. We are trading off insight for more and more potent doses of entertainment-obsessively tracking the chaotic (and often staged) lives of celebrities-rather than dealing with the real complications of our own lives. And we are editing our life stories into made-for-the-Web "profiles" that require that we become editors and broadcasters of who we are.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony

Now that murder charges have been filed against Casey Anthony, the question of her underlying character is more important to answer than ever. Her 3-year-old daughter Caylee is allegedly dead, by her hands. This, after months of Casey lying to family, police and even the famed bail bondsman who sprung her from jail, convinced he could get her to tell the truth about her daughter's whereabouts.

November 27, 2015

Dr. Keith: How to Overcome Fear

Whether it is a fear of intimacy, a fear of heights or fear of financial collapse, the roots of fear are the same, and so is the way to overcome it.