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...
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...
Cast of Sagrado Corazón: The fiery sacred heart Image of Dove in Flight: The letter A clutched in its beak Creating PeAce From W_R Wooden Rosary: Small enough to hide in a fist Powerful enough to ward off soulless lovers Gilded Portrait of...
Every person has two histories influencing their present actions and future choices. One history is made up of idiosyncrasies, assimilated norms, and life events — the way you hold a pencil, how you dance, the people you’ve loved and their influence on who you’ve...
I once walked atop a butte Each footstep greeted by a cloud of red dust The scent of desert sage The pain of us lost in relief — Canyon de Chelly in the near distance Arches another day Soon Mesa Verde — A promise to our shared forgetting: My travelogue and a...
One of the more consequential mistakes on my quest to recover from sexual trauma was my lack of discernment about the type of care I needed. Instead of guided by clear objectives, I was driven by a panicky urgency to escape anxiety and despair. I accepted the first...
That summer we pretended we were orphans, two sisters torn apart by misfortune, reunited by happenstance with only Earth to parent us. Hair matted thick from days of hill country winds and no one to make us bathe, we decided on a movie star archaeologist,...
The heart was the last to go but left a clue where to find her: a smooth river rock heavy in my chest. I knew long before — an image had relayed the nature of her plea — a vision of us together feeling the wind breathe the trees. For so long I resisted the urge...
The prince planted the woman in red amidst the spring sorghum. That year the sun struck the moondown to Earthand stalks grew as high as the baobabs. The woman seemed to disappearin her cage of grassand the prince told her to whistleso he could find her....
You think it’s an ordinary day, although warm for early morning in the desert sun. You decide to nap in the shade of a Palo Verde tree, but your mind is heavy with remembrances and regret, so many days wasted in self-absorption while affections went neglected, the...
Long before their falling-out, Carl Jung shared a tragic memory in a letter to Sigmund Freud: “... as a boy I was the victim of a sexual assault by a man I once worshipped” (cited in John Kerr's A Most Dangerous Method). Jung also shared his infatuation with Freud:...
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...
Sun was in a mood. Solar flares whipped Earth’s poles causing flecks of green and gold to dance across the night sky. “They used to worship me,” he said to no one but knew Moon was listening. “The Anthropocene?!” He shouted. “As if they could wield so much power on...
Prior to entering college, some women choose not to pursue majors in male-dominated fields like STEM, economics, and philosophy if they anticipate gender discrimination. For those who persevere, having professors sensitive to gender issues can protect...
A defining attribute of humankind is our imaginations. They make possible thriving in almost every climate and grant us the ability to create ecospheres where none existed. If we notably differ from other species, then our uniqueness is found in the time and energy we...
Military sonar exercises continue to imperil marine life and bottom trawling scars the ocean floor. But the calm water is a siren waking me before dawn. I rustle together my scuba gear and head to Maalaea Harbor to catch the first boat to Molokini Crater. An exuberant...
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...
According to a 2014 World Health Organization Report, and data from one hundred thirty-three countries representing eighty-eight percent of the world’s population, nearly one in five women were sexually abused in early life. Yet only a third are thought to have...
Although carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere began rising due to the use of fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution (mainly coal), nearly half of all fossil fuels were utilized after 1989 when the Cold War ended. It’s staggering to think that in a mere 34...
Not that it comes as a surprise, but like me, over 4.7 million Goodreads members plan to read a lot this year – on average, 40 books. Unfortunately, Goodreads isn’t representative of the US population. According to a poll conducted by David Montgomery of...
When I headed off to college over forty years ago, unsure of what I wanted to do with my life, my younger sister recommended taking a course in archaeology. If it didn’t pan out, I could always use the units to meet my humanities requirement. At the time, we lived...
My first bird feeder was an afterthought. The backyard was barren after years of California drought. I was eager to plant bushes and trees and build raised beds to grow vegetables. I thought a feeder might look nice between the Japanese Maple and a rosemary bush. I...
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...
Sexual abuse can happen to anyone at any age, although it is a crime perpetrated largely against youths, especially during adolescence and early adulthood. Tragically, relatively few receive the professional support they need. For many, the failure to access care is...
I’ve returned to blogging and publishing after a 3-year hiatus. My break was unexpected. In December 2018, I completed a weekly, year-long online project devoted to recovery from sexual trauma. I began 2019 diligently turning this material into a book. I was...
Challenging times bring forth the best and worst in humanity. In our darkest moments, many of us benefit from an image of our better selves or someone we admire who can inspire us to continue the good fight with hope, if not also heroism. But what makes someone, or...
The Trickster has been depicted as both mythical figure and archetype — what Carl Jung identified as instinctual schemas guiding behavior that serve both individual and social development. As archetype, Trickster is a masterful, yet unpredictable,...
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...
In My Green Manifesto, nature writer David Gessner shared of paddling down the Charles River with environmentalist Dan Driscoll as Driscoll spoke of the need for hypocrites in the green movement: “We nature lovers are hypocrites of course,” Dan says. “We are all...
Few people pass from birth to death without intimate knowledge of trauma’s capacity to alter the landscape of their lives. So many experiences are traumatizing: war, rape, death of a loved one, car accidents, hurricanes, bullying, scapegoating, family violence,...
Designer Charles Eames warned of an emerging cultural obsession with the creative process: Recent years have shown a growing preoccupation with the circumstances surrounding the creative act and a search for the ingredients that promote creativity. This...
Buddhist psychology claims there are three primary emotions or sensations — pleasant, painful, and neutral. Arising from these primary emotions are our reactions to them, the so-called secondary emotions. For example, we might feel desire or joy in...
My husband and I have been together almost 37 years, 33 of them married. We know couples past the 50-year point. Some like to trump our landmark. “Pshaw. Newlyweds.” But in a nation where half of marriages end in divorce, and about half the people wanting a...
In the movie Take This Waltz, a young Canadian woman, Margot, is happily married although not excited about her life. Her work doesn’t fulfill her. She designs brochures but would rather be a “real” writer. She describes herself as afraid of being...
BBC's The Why Factor has a short podcast on trauma well worth your time (18 minutes). Cultural Memory explores how societies respond collectively to traumatic memories of war and extreme human rights violations, which too often involves silencing...
For the past 50 years, psychotherapy took a back seat to biomedical psychiatry, largely due to reliance on medications for the treatment of mental disorders. Yet clinical evidence increasingly points to chronic, unresolved traumatic stress as a primary contributor to...
While hiking among the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park, I learned the Paiutes Indians called these majestic rock pillars the Legend People who coyote trickster turned to stone because of their evil ways. Looking out on Bryce Canyon, thinking about the fierce...
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