I am repeating this post from last week as a reminder that This Emotional Life is premiering on PBS tonight, Jan 4, 2010. I am really looking forward to this 3 part series that airs over the next three nights ( here in Canada at 9.00pm) — check out your regions scheduling or watch online. The first episode,Family Friends & Lovers, looks at the importance of relationships and why they are central to our emotional well-being.
This 3-part series represents what television does best. It opens a window into real lives, exploring ways to improve our social relationships, cope with emotional issues, and become more positive, resilient individuals. Viewers are taken on an in-depth tour of the science of human emotions in an effort to truly understand what makes us tick. Every day, it seems, some new study reveals a previously hidden epidemic of depression, anxiety or other psychological problem. At the root of the confusion lie three key questions: what is biological, what is cultural and what can we do when things go wrong? After centuries of assuming that we humans, with our mysterious minds and messy emotions, were just not fit subjects for study, science has developed some startling insights into human nature. Using the latest cutting edge research from neuroscience, startling observations from social science and experts in psychology, THIS EMOTIONAL LIFE explores the biological need for social relationships, how to manage negative feelings and the search for greater happiness, unveiling a new understanding of what it means to be human.
In her new book Smile or Die Barbara Ehrenreich explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. Ehrenreich conceived of the book when she became ill with breast cancer, and found herself surrounded by pink ribbons and bunny rabbits and platitudes. In the following video from FORA Barbara presents a sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism.
In today’s Guardian Ehrenreich writes an excellent account about her experience with Breast Cancer.
The first thing I discovered as I waded out into the relevant sites is that not everyone views the disease with horror and dread. Instead, the appropriate attitude is upbeat and even eagerly acquisitive.
But, despite all the helpful information, the more fellow victims I discovered and read, the greater my sense of isolation grew. No one among the bloggers and book writers seemed to share my sense of outrage over the disease and the available treatments. What causes it and why is it so common, especially in industrialised societies? Why don’t we have treatments that distinguish between different forms of breast cancer or between cancer cells and normal dividing cells? In the mainstream of breast cancer culture, there is very little anger, no mention of possible environmental causes, and few comments about the fact that, in all but the more advanced, metastasised cases, it is the “treatments”, not the disease, that cause the immediate illness and pain.
She goes on to discuss the concept of Positive thinking. Ehrenreich found when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that “a cult of optimism that pervaded articles and books about the disease made her feel isolated instead of supported”.
Like a perpetually flashing neon sign in the background, like an inescapable jingle, the injunction to be positive is so ubiquitous that it’s impossible to identify a single source. Oprah routinely trumpets the triumph of attitude over circumstance. A Google search for “positive thinking” turns up 1.92m entries. A whole coaching industry has grown up since the mid-90s, heavily marketed on the internet, to help people improve their attitudes and hence, supposedly, their lives.
A study in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Sleep found that adolescents with bedtimes that were set earlier by parents were significantly less likely to suffer from depression and to think about committing suicide, suggesting that earlier bedtimes could have a protective effect by lengthening sleep duration and increasing the likelihood of getting enough sleep. Results show that adolescents with parental set bedtimes of midnight or later were 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression (odds ratio = 1.24) and 20 percent more likely to have suicidal ideation (OR=1.20) than adolescents with parental set bedtimes of 10 p.m. or earlier. [continue reading…]
A topic very much of the moment (and one that I’m sure will feature often in 2010) ” How to train the Aging Brain”
It’s maddening and, sorry to say, not all that unusual for a brain at middle age: I don’t just forget whole books, but movies I just saw, breakfasts I just ate, and the names, oh, the names are awful. Who are you?
Brains in middle age, which, with increased life spans, now stretches from the 40s to late 60s, also get more easily distracted. Start boiling water for pasta, go answer the doorbell and — whoosh — all thoughts of boiling water disappear. Indeed, aging brains, even in the middle years, fall into what’s called the default mode, during which the mind wanders off and begin daydreaming.
Baby boomers are getting older. Now the slow realization is that we’re not going to live forever (speaking as an ageing boomer). But the brain as we age gets better at recognising the big picture and as Barbara Strauch suggests in this article
If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can. link to read this article
