Category: Psychology

Some interesting developments are on the horizon in psychopharmacology – the study of drugs that affect our psychological state. Caffeine, alcohol and nicotine are the culturally (fairly) accepted methods of changing mood and performance. Perhaps soon these will be old hat.

Modafinil is a drug that was originally developed for the treatment of narcoleptics. It has subsequently been tested on helicopter pilots and been found to significantly improve alertness in fatigued pilots.

“Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, who tested modafinil in a series of experiments on volunteers found that they showed greater concentration, faster learning and increased mental agility. “It may be the first real smart drug,” she says. “A lot of people will probably take modafinil. I suspect they do already.”

Word is spreading about this and other drugs. Illegal ritalin use to aid concentration is on the rise. Research is breaking through into the uses of ecstacy and psylocibin on depression. How long before the next wave of psychoactive chemicals breaks through onto the mainstream?

Personally I prefer to use natural methods of performance enhancement. Nevertheless, I reserve the right to change my mind when I am no longer young, fit and healthy.

> From The Independent

Half a century ago the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey redefined what was considered normal sexual behaviour. A Hollywood film of his life is already garnering rave reviews in the US, and comes out in the UK on 4th March.

In anticipation of the film’s release journalists will be beavering away on feature articles. One of their less-gifted number has already been in contact with Petra Boynton, the sex and relationship psychologist:

“Last week a journalist called me and asked for Kinsey’s email address. Not the address of the Kinsey Institute, but Professor Alfred Kinsey’s personal private account.

‘”I’d have a job doing that”, I replied. “He’s dead!”
“Oh what a shame,” they said. “And he’s only just finished making that film…”
“That’s an actor, Liam Neeson, playing Kinsey,” I explained.
After a pause the journalist asked, “So who was Kinsey anyway?”‘

It’s a wonder some people can hold onto their jobs.
> From BBC News

So, how exactly do you separate your day-job at coporate HQ from your turns at the strip-joint? What types of mental strategies do you employ to avoid getting confused and climbing on the marketing director’s desk and slowly removing your clothes?

I’m especially amused to see that ‘going to church’ might be considered an activity that constitutes having a secret life. How low religion has sunk from the glory days – they need to get some spin doctors on the case.

> From The New York Times

Britain’s culture of long working hours is definitely alive and well – although I wouldn’t call is ‘slave labour’. This perennial article points out how much unpaid overtime we do and how it can seriously damage our well-being. As ever some of the most insightful points are made by readers giving their point of view at the end. Whatever your perspective, leaving the office before your peers takes guts.

> From BBC News

“It is feared the disaster could leave a mental “time bomb” if those caught up in it are not given counselling over the coming months. Mental health charity Sane is calling for funds to provide such counselling.”

> From BBC News

“How does a government gain information from a terrorist? The question is of more than academic interest to the United States- which, in places like Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, and the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, has been trying to ferret out the secrets of suspected terrorists.”

> From The New York Times

“It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then — to loosen up.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone — “to relax,” I told myself — but I knew it wasn’t true.

Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home.”

> Read the rest at Idiolect.org.uk

“The endurance of left-handedness has puzzled researchers, because it is linked to disadvantages including an increased risk of some diseases. But University of Montpellier experts, writing in Proceedings B, say it could be because they do well in combat.”

Small sample size but some provocative results.

> From BBC News

Recognising other people by decoding the subtle contours of their face is a complicated task that we take for granted. But imagine if all faces looked the same and you couldn’t tell whether someone was a stranger or your mother. Welcome to the world of the face-blind.

Prosopagnosia, the technical term for face-blindness, is an unusual condition the neurologist Oliver Sacks described in his bestselling book: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat.

Those with this condition are often no different from the rest of us in every other way. Because of this it is easy for people to go through life without realising there is an aspect of their perception that is quite unusual.

“The survey found that 42% of the gay men, 43% of lesbians and 49% of bisexual men and women had a clinically recognised mental health problem.”

> From BBC News