Wray Herbert's Posts

"I feel your disease" by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Make no mistake. Flu season isn’t over. I was in my doc’s office the other day for something routine, and he’s still pushing the H1N1 vaccine. I don’t know why the other ... Read on »

The ironic power of stereotype by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Brent Staples is an editorial writer for the New York Times and a University of Chicago-trained psychologist. He is also African-American, and back in the 70s, when he was d ... Read on »

Dog tired: What our hounds can teach us about self-control by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health We humans have much more self-discipline than other animals. We can and do set goals—losing 25 pounds, going to college—and then go without certain pleasures to achieve ... Read on »

How to read minds like a wizard by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Fans of the Harry Potter books will be familiar with the art of Legilimency. Legilimency is an advanced form of wizardry, the supernatural ability to coax thoughts and feeli ... Read on »

Knockoff psychology: I know I'm faking it by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Within just a few blocks of my office, street vendors will sell me a Versace t-shirt or a silk tie from Prada, cheap. Or I could get a deal on a Rolex, or a chic pair of Ray ... Read on »

Do you really need those eyeglasses? by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Most of us use the numbers 20/20 unthinkingly, basically as a synonym for good vision. We take it on faith that 20/20 is an accurate measure of some biological re ... Read on »

American restlessness, American unhappiness? by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Imagine you are a high school basketball player, and a pretty good one. You are a senior, and right now you are the starting point guard for the Rochester Eagles. Last y ... Read on »

Fast food, racing thoughts by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Fast food is unhealthy. I know, I know. Few of us need convincing of that fact any more. But as unassailable as it is, the brief against fast food has for year ... Read on »

The power of gratitude by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Like most parents, I drilled my young kids on the importance of saying “thank you” to others. Nagged them, really. After all, words of gratitude are an important social conv ... Read on »

Emotions by the roomful by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health I have a friend who sucks the air out of the room whenever he comes around. He is so blustery and self-absorbed that people don’t interact with him; they capitulate. I a ... Read on »

A tool for predicting suicide? by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Suicide is both disturbing and perplexing to survivors, in part because it is so unpredictable. People who are intent on killing themselves often conceal their tho ... Read on »

A willingness to wonder by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Willingness is a core concept of addiction recovery programs, and a paradoxical one. Twelve-step programs emphasize that individual addicts cannot will themselves into recov ... Read on »

Vieux, en bonne sante . . . et bilingue by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health In French, that means old, healthy . . . and bilingual. I could just as well have used Google Translate to put that phrase into Finnish or Spanish or Chinese. The fact is, I ... Read on »

Casting light on cheating and greed by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Louis Brandeis was already one of America’s most famous lawyers when Woodrow Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1916. He was a tireless and prescient critic of big ... Read on »

An angry voter is an ignorant voter by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Imagine this scenario: You lost your job at the lumber yard early in 2009. Nobody is building new homes these days, and this slowdown has trickled down to suppliers all over ... Read on »

The Mind of a Misanthrope by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health I become misanthropic every February. I avoid social gatherings, and really just want to hole up at home. I always assumed it was the dark evenings and slippery sidewalks an ... Read on »

The Science of Recovery by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Alcoholism Over the past few years, I have written many short essays on new findings in psychological science. Most have these have appeared in this blog, "We're Only Human," but many ot ... Read on »

Focusing on the Cinematic Mind by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Our household is a rolling Alfred Hitchcock festival. We almost always have at least one of the celebrated director’s films on DVD, and over the years we have watched most o ... Read on »

A Salvo in the Calorie War by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health The calorie war is heating up. It’s actually been simmering for some time, sparked by an alarming obesity rate among young Americans and related spikes in diabetes and other ... Read on »

The Science of Recovery by Wray Herbert Posted in: Blog Posts in Mental Health Over the past few years, I have written many short essays on new findings in psychological science. Most have these have appeared in this blog, "We're Only Human," but ... Read on »

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