Sigmund Freud’s “signal theory” of anxiety conceptualizes this emotion as a safeguard protecting us and others from the emergence of threatening intrapsychic and interpersonal material. Freud saw anxiety signaling the presence and press of threatening psychic content – oftentimes aggressive or sexual impulses. Contemporary evolutionary psychology supports Freud’s formulation. Biopsychosocial analysis considers anxiety a legacyContinue Reading: Repression, Anxiety & CBT

We human beings are at once the most empathic and the most hostile creatures on Earth. This mixture of sociability and antisociality enabled us to band together and dominate the planet. Violent impulses alone would have made it impossible for us to live in close-knit families and clans without killing each other off. Nature’s answerContinue Reading: Our 2022 World Champion Of Shame Attacking!

Treating others with kindness and respect when they are being overtly hostile may sound like a big mistake. In fact, doing anything else might be the great error. In this post my colleague Matt May MD tells a story that might one day be the story of any one of us – should we shareContinue Reading: The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Do you have a difficult person in your life? In your family, perhaps, or amongst your neighbors or colleagues? Maybe you’re a therapist and have a difficult patient or two. My colleagues at Ramat Gan College in Tel Aviv invited me there next week to give a workshop on this topic. In this short videoContinue Reading: Dealing With Difficult People

Please join me and 14 of my closest colleagues August 18 – 21 for the first-ever international symposium on TEAM CBT. If you’re unable to be on the ground with us in Warsaw, Poland, join us via our live stream – which will also be recorded for viewing at any time by all registrants. BothContinue Reading: International TEAM CBT Symposium [in-person & online] August 18 – 21, Warsaw, Poland