Fostering Self-Regulation Following Sexual Abuse

My surname, Kerr, is thought to originate with the Gaelic caerr, which means “left.” Many of my ancestors, the Clan Kerr of Scotland, were left-handed (and I am too), which led to the Scottish expression Kerr-fisted to describe a left-handed...

Making Sense of Senselessness

Traumatic experiences like sexual abuse leave us with more than flashbacks and symptoms like depression and anxiety. They impact our self-concept and how we make sense of our place in the world. Many of us wonder: What kind of person am I for this to have happened to...

Power of Poetry

We know freedom through the emotions and actions it ignites in us: joy, exhilaration, confidence, self-expression, playfulness. Yet, we cannot truly know freedom without some sense of belonging, which also ignites these same emotions and actions. Discourses that pit...

Are AA’s Twelve Steps for Everyone?

The idea that complete abstinence from mind-altering substances is necessary for recovery from addiction – the hallmark of treatments like Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous – is under threat. For younger Americans dealing with addiction to opioids...

Lessons From a Young Condor

When I attended university thirty years ago with an interest in science, the curriculum’s focus was both the subject matter and how to view the world objectively. It was an education for worlds unknown to me — the social lives of insects, the intricacies of human...

What is the function of the brain?

Based on her ethnographic study of psychiatric residency programs, anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann concluded psychiatry is “of two minds,” much like the Axis I and Axis II diagnoses organizing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While some...

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