My friends and patients often ask me: What is sadness? What is grief? What are the major depressions and how many kinds are there? Well this time, let’s first consider the sadness and grief we all feel from time-to-time. For all of us, this visit of sadness from time-to-time in our lives is the price…
There is a major variation from the norm in temperament that seems to be present in many, and perhaps all, creative geniuses. This variant lies beyond the normally occurring variability of individual temperaments – a variability that, from an evolutionary standpoint, confers flexibility and resilience in the survival of the tribe as a whole. The extreme variant of…
The controversially named borderline syndrome is a chronic, recurrent and mercurial mental disorder (Paris, 1994; Sandell, 1989). Diagnosed predominantly among females (about 75%) (Widiger and Weissman, 1991), borderline personality disorder (BPD) occurs among 2% of the general population, 10% of outpatient psychiatric patients and 20% of inpatient psychiatric patients (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The current…
Success Stems from Empathetic Practices, Not Rigid Rituals All Psychotherapies, each based upon a particular theoretical framework, promise their benefits, often vociferously. Therapies and theories – and there are many — claim that anguish and suffering will be significantly abated or even replaced with contentment, peace, tranquility and happiness if therapy protocols are followed and practiced correctly…
Humanity mystifies the unknown, especially those unknown phenomena that endanger, frighten, or bewilder. Often we bestow on such phenomena a kind of morality as well. “God did it to punish us.” “They were sinners and received their due!” “They are constitutionally inferior or degenerate, that’s why!” are oft-heard explanations for the less fortunate among us.…
Letters to the Editor N.Y. Times February 12, 2012 Sir: Attempting to match people by the various “match.coms” on the Internet by using their particular algorithms- trade secrets at that! – is akin to attempting to create paintings with numbers. It usually fails (The Dubious science of On-Line Dating . New York Times, February 11th) as…
The reduced (48%) incidence of schizophrenia in monozygotic twins when the co-twin develops schizophrenia[1] has long remained a puzzle and a challenge. Attempts have been made to explain the phenomenon by the use of the concept of incomplete penetrance and a possible postzygotic, mitotic crossover that could account for the discordance. A study conducted by…
Nicholas Pediaditakis, MD, DLFAPA was born in Salonica Greece (09/24/1928 ) and was raised in Crete. He received his medical education from the Aristotelian University, Salonica, Greece 1954, and his specialty in Psychiatry at the University of Colorado medical school at Denver, Colo. in 1962. He taught at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and…
Empirical evidence and previous research demonstrate shared characteristics which together play a crucial role in the development of the MMDs. These characteristics readily apparent clinically, are overlooked in their collective significance for the development of the MMDs. The characteristics and their significance are: 1. The significance of inborn propensities. (Temperament) The underlying temperamental variances in all MMDs…
Chroniclers of the Soul 