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Source: Baranq/Shutterstock This guest post was primarily written by Nicole Wedberg, M.A. Imagine this scenario: Pam is engaged to Roy. Pam also has a close friend at work — his name is Jim. Pam and Jim enjoy each other’s company, buy each other the occasional vending machine snack, listen to each other’s complaints about work, etc. If you’ve seen The Office, you know exactly how this story ends. At first, we try to accept that Jim is in the friend zone, but this just isn’t so. It’s impossible to deny that they have chemistry — Jim is not merely a friend. As the story unfolds (sorry for the spoiler!), Pam and Roy’s relationship ends, a new relationship begins with Pam and Jim, and the two of them go on to live happily ever after. You could argue here that Jim started out as Pam’s “backup” boyfriend — he was waiting in the bull pen and ready to step up to the plate the moment Roy was benched. Whether Pam was … [Read more...] about The Psychology of the Backup Boyfriend or Girlfriend

"The University is not engaged in making ideas safe for students. It is engaged in making students safe for ideas."  For the better part of my adult life, I have focused on promoting kindness. So recently people have asked how I could possibly defend notorious internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos’s right to speak on college campuses—as if defending his right to speak is an endorsement of his views. This idea seems strange to me. If we want the people we call “intolerant” to respect the rights of those they think are immoral or disgusting, it seems fairly obvious that we, who are “tolerant,” have to be willing to do the same. Yet in what some call pleas for tolerance, students across the country are demanding that Yiannopoulos and his "Dangerous Faggot Tour" be banned from their campuses. As the Chancellor of UC Berkeley noted, public colleges and universities like Berkeley are bound by the First Amendment, and are therefore prevented from … [Read more...] about Uncivil Rights

Pediatricians and other primary care physicians (PCPs) are finding themselves as providers of child mental health care more than ever. Whether it be screening toddlers for autism, starting medications for conditions such as ADHD or depression, or dispensing parental advice to manage oppositional children, your PCP is now finding him or herself on the front lines of treating childhood emotional-behavioral problems, like it or not. While there was once the opportunity for PCPs to outsource mental health problems in their patients to therapists and child psychiatrists, national shortages are making this practice a dim memory in many parts of the country. Some pediatricians welcome the challenge, others find it quite uncomfortable, given the lack of specific training most of them receive in medical school and residency.   New initiatives in public health are working towards the idea of the primary care office as the central “medical home” equipped with ever more … [Read more...] about Pediatricians as Mental Health Doctors

“. . . this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation . . .” So wrote Jonah Goldberg in a column in the National Review Online.  What created this special joy? Encouraging gains in the housing? Job creation? A reducing deficit? No, the troubled roll out of the Affordable Care Act. He was not alone. He was part of chorus of people with similar, equally savored, equally joyous reactions. It is “schadenfreudarama,” to use Goldberg’s own characterization. Why the lip smacking delight? After all, critics of the Affordable Care Act, such as Goldberg, claim that, “. . . millions of Americans’ lives have been thrown into anxious chaos as they lose their health insurance, their doctors, their money, or all three. . .” and argue that there is “still-folding violence” being inflicted “on the economy … [Read more...] about The Politics of Schadenfreude

Here’s a clunky joke that says a lot more than it knows: An 80-year-old Italian goes to the doctor for a check-up.  The doctor is amazed at what good shape the man is in. “I'm Italian and a golfer,” says the guy, “and that's why I'm in such good shape. I'm up before daylight and out on the fairway. I have a glass of vino and all is well.”   "Well,” says the doctor, “I'm sure that helps, but there's got to be more to it. How old was your father when he died?”  "Who said he was dead?"  The doctor is amazed. “You mean you're 80 years old and your father's still alive? How old is he?” “He's 100 years old,” says the patient.  “In fact he golfed with me this morning, and then we went to the topless beach for a walk and had a little chianti. He's Italian and he golfs, too.” “That's great,” the doctor says,  “but I'm … [Read more...] about A Psychology of Humor