My Hat it has 3 Corners

Thiss sentence has threee errors. (Nelson, 1996)

Psychology Defined

Case #1

You are a forensic psychologist asked by the court to assess the accused's current and prior mental state to determine his competency to stand trial as well as potential criminal responsibility.

You try to interview the suspect (alleged attempted murder of a police officer), but he refuses to talk. You explain the procedure, his rights, the potential for this interview to open the door to a possible insanity defense; you also explain the unconfidential nature of the assessment. He continues to refuse to talk, claiming he isn't feeling up to the interview and anyway is suffering retrograde amnesia so he doesn't remember any details from the incident.

Following the unsuccessful interview, you call the suspect's wife. At first, she hesitantly corroborates her husband's story. She says at the beginning of his recovery from the bullet wound to his head dealt him by the police officer during their altercation, he was very regressed and had difficulty with basic hygienic functions. Later in the interview, she leaked more information.

"Will my husband find out what I tell you?"
"I will have to include it in my report to the court. Are you scared about that?"
"He's killed people before. He made me promise to back up his story."

You must now go and file your report to the Judge. Analyze the actions of the court psychologist up to this point and recommend the next step.

Of Carrots and Consciousness

"Have you ever pictured yourself as a carrot? I mean try to really convince yourself you are a carrot and imagine how you would feel and act. I tried believing I was a dog the other day and it is crazy the ideas you'll come up with!"

Some people are blessed with wonderfully clever imaginations. The above quote is from a conversation I had last night. The guy asked if I think that is strange.

"Not at all. Most people have imaginations and wacky thoughts running through their minds. You happened to be brave enough to discuss it."

"No, not everyone has this kind of mind."

"Well, whether it is common or not, I think it's cool."

"But you are crazy anyway."

"Yah. I guess I am."

Your turn. Do you ever have these types of thoughts? Do you ever enjoy playing with your own mind, stretching it out just to see what it can do? Am I right that there are other people out there like us cognodelics?

Expanding Blog World, Answer Service

Holy cow! (I didn't mean to get off topic so quickly, but yes, I recently picked up How To Expand Love by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This follows a study of Nabokov's Lolita and Pale Fire. Also studying for LSATs. Anyway, back to the scheduled post.)

I am just discovering the huge "geek world" going on on the web today. There are really 2 groups (or more) of net users. The in-the-know people who have their blog feeders/readers and read sites like engadget.com for info about their Wii and PS3, then you have the AOL and MySpace people. They just want content without the techie lingo.

BTW, AOL is still really really bad. I hadn't given them a look since the America Offline fiasco of the 1990's and then the 'net became free and there was no need for AOL. Then their ill-fated merger with Time-Warner sent their stock tumbling, but somehow they are still around. Anyway, I recently needed to get in touch with someone whose only contact info I had was her AIM screen name. So I made myself an account and was shocked by how buggy the software and service still are. Wake up, it's 2006!

And lets not forget our new feature: Readers are invited to ask any question they might have about the science of the mind. Be creative: psychology, neurology, neuroscience, mental health, neurosurgery, psychoanalysis, counselling psychiatry, etc.

We'll try to answer as soon as possible or refer your question to an appropriate source. So far I am just an undergrad psych major, but with access to the faculty and resources of the university I hope to be able to provide quick, reliable information. For me this is a class project, a beta test, a public service, and a way to practice my new knowledge and challenge myself. For you, this is a chance to get free information and advice, learn something you always wanted to know about the brain and its contribution to your life, or just waste my time. ;-)

Vandalism or Art?

Some guy smashed my front door in Friday night, wanted to impress his girlfriend. Probably was drunk. My friends chased him out. But it got me thinking about the effect of the physical barriers in our lives on our level of psychological closedness. Don't we feel uneasy when we go to sleep without a door separating us from the street?

Think about how it's OK to share a house with 10 other guys and not close our bedroom doors, but it's not OK to share our personal space with strangers. Without the door, the living area becomes wide open. So you could look at it as losing privacy or as building an extension that incorporates the outside into the inside and provides a whole new perspective: Imagine a world without borders.