Most of us are familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. A man is beaten and left for dead, ignored by a priest and a Levite, but rescued by a Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Jews at the time. Jesus told the parable (Luke 10:25–37) to answer the question, “Who is... Continue Reading →
The Kentucky House of Representatives recently passed House Bill 495. As I understand it, the bill as originally proposed by David Hale sought to protect counselors, pastors, and therapists providing therapy to minors from discrimination by the government. An amendment added to the bill ended up containing language that invalidated an executive order by Governor... Continue Reading →
We can be passionate about our political views. We can treat our preferred political parties and candidates like the sports teams we root for. We can fall victim to heated political debate in which we speak and write in ways we typically wouldn’t do with others. We can go down online rabbit holes and convince... Continue Reading →
I have been following the reactions to the executive order signed by President Trump that renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Some have laughed, some have proudly posted new maps, but many have said "Wait, he did what? Can he do that?" As I understand it, this order means that in... Continue Reading →
I’m reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. The book is about the effects of the modern age of technology on the mental health of children and adolescents. After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged... Continue Reading →
The Stories We Tell Ourselves As a clinical psychologist, I am often asked to identify what is wrong with someone. While this can be valuable in certain circumstances, it may actually be more valuable to be able to say what is right with someone. One of the things that has always intrigued me in the... Continue Reading →
In a previous essay, I wrote about Bias as being a Tale of Two Systems, one of which thinks fast and one of which thinks slow. System 1 forms “first impressions” and often is the reason why we jump to conclusions. This is the Thinking Fast system. System 2 is the analytical, “critical thinking” way... Continue Reading →
Bias: A Tale of Two Systems. Thinking Fast and Slow Shortly before the pandemic hit, I was asked by an organization to conduct training on bias for their staff. I suspect they had something else in mind when they asked me to put together this training, but I ended up putting together a training that... Continue Reading →
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