Discrimination and persecution of homosexual and transgender people continues to be a major problem, and appears to be on the rise in many areas. A key reason for this distressing occurrence resides in how sexual orientation and gender are understood—discrete homosexual, heterosexual, male, female, identities. To simplify information processing we have a strong tendency to put things in discrete categories, such as gay, straight. The drawback of this psychological predilection is that it sets up in-group and out-group distinctions, a tendency derived from our 200,000 to 300,000-year evolution ..read more

A month into the disgusting attack by Putin and the Russian military against Ukraine, I write this post not in response to Putin, but in reaction to leaders of the west, NATO, and the United Nations. The bravery and resolve of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the people of that country, in fighting a force ten times larger in terms of troops and weaponry is highly inspirational. Russian forces have been halted in some instances, stalled in most, and even pushed back, despite Ukraine forces being sadly deficient in weapons of offense. They need these weapons to survive and win ..read more

Delusions are false beliefs not at all consistent with reality. Although such thoughts might appear to comprise a separate category from normal thoughts, the content of thought consists of a spectrum from very tight and logical all the way to delusions. The content of thought is best viewed as cognitive distortions given that it is very difficult to perceive the exact nature of reality, an ongoing struggle for scientists. Minor cognitive distortions include positive and negative spins on experience, attribution biases, and fantasy. Positive cognitive distortions commonly provide a powerful psy ..read more

PANDEMIC COPING VIA STATES AND PROCESSES FOR MENTAL HEALTH As with any major stressor the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the coping capacity of people. Those with a solid capacity to cope with stress have fared better, whereas those with diminished ability have suffered to a greater extent often experiencing mental illness. My current research as a psychiatrist is timely because it identifies seven key states and processes for mental health crucial to coping with major stressors such as the pandemic: ACTIVITY: Being active in general and specifically in regards to physical, social, nature, c ..read more

Announcing release of new academic book, States And Processes For Mental Health: Advancing Psychotherapy Effectiveness, Academic Press by Brad Bowins Elsevier books States and Processes for Mental Health: Advancing Psychotherapy Effectivenesspresents a novel mechanism of action for psychotherapy, revealing how psychotherapy actually works by advancing key states and processes characterizing mental health. This new understanding is presented in three sections. The first section identifies 7 states and processes for mental health. The second section examines 15 major forms of psychotherapy and n ..read more

The coronavirus outbreak arose in late 2019 in China and spread in 2020. Spreading faster than the virus has been anxiety, panic, and fear-based responses. Consequently, every day sees a new rule or change in policy, even when such an immediate reaction is not warranted. Fear is an evolved emotional response occurring when threat or danger is perceived, motivating adaptive responses. Human intelligence has intensified threat and danger related thoughts, amplifying the emotional responses. Worsening the situation is contagion, and I am not referring to biological spread of the virus. If we see ..read more

Mental illness accounts for approximately half of all illnesses, but receives a fraction of the funding that physical illness does. In addition, treatment options are limited in their effectiveness and mental health in the general population is not ideal. Hence, there is a great need for beneficial and cost-effective interventions, with the situation dire in third world countries and even first world countries with unevenly spread mental health resources. But what might qualify as an option? The answer is activity, particularly appealing given how natural and positive it is! In the realm of ph ..read more

Some people have raised the issue of what defines mental illness, which is made clear in my book, Mental Illness Defined: Continuums, Regulation And Defense (https://bradbowinsbooks.com/mental-illness-defined/). Besides not aligning with the true nature of psychopathology, discrete diagnoses are less humanistic than a continuous characterization, whereby mental health problems range from normal to extreme levels. Take personality disorders, where in clinical practice there is an us versus them orientation. My continuous model of personality disorders views these problems as extreme and endurin ..read more

Temperature values for global warming are reported in degrees above pre-industrial levels, with average values dominating. However, it seems far more sensible to report values for regions where global warming is having the most impact, namely the Arctic and Antarctic. On average, we are about 1 degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and this frankly does not seem to disturb most people, particularly if defensively downplaying the impacts of global warming. Considering that the Arctic and Antarctic regions are now about 2-4 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and 3-4 degrees is when ..read more

Social and environmental justice, or more to the point, injustice, are often treated separately, but they are very interconnected. This intersection of social and environmental injustice might well be what eventually triggers widespread revolution, given that it is typically less affluent people who suffer the burden of the cost. In tropical countries, the poor often live right by the coast, while the wealthy reside in more exclusive hillside communities protected from flooding, for instance. Revolution was touched off in Syria by the intersection of social and environmental injustice, given t ..read more