No matter how much Daniel Schuler denies on "Larry King Live" that his wife was drunk on that fateful day in July, there was that damnable busted bottle of Absolut vodka in the crushed metal of Diane Schuler's minivan. Had that 1.7 liters snuck up and beckoned her on that weekend morning, whispering drink me, then sip some more in the car as you listen to the radio? Read More

These days most of us feel as if life is racing by, and it's more important than ever to find time for the people who matter most.  Electronic socializing through Facebook, email and texting might give us the illusion that we're nurturing our relationships, though the quality and depth of those relationships may actually be going down the tubes.  Wellness and life balance expert Dr. Susan Biali shares three essentials to creating meaningful relationships that will stand the test of time and nurture your own health and happiness. Read More

My op-ed piece, below, was published in yesterday's Baltimore Sun. What I did not discuss in the piece is my guess that Phillip Garrido did not have men friends in his life.  I will blog about this in the near future. The case of Jaycee Dugard and her two daughters is terrifying, but we need to keep things in perspective. What happened to Ms. Read More

This is a big day for me -- the publication date of my book "Parallel Play" (Doubleday) and my first attempt at writing a blog. I have a lot of friends who have been doing this for years -- the music critic Alex Ross at therestisnoise.com, the omniverous Terry Teachout at terryteachout.com, and my new friend, the brilliant and generous John Elder Robison at JohnRobison.com -- but I have always resisted. Read More

Recently, I wrote about the popular - though thoroughly neurotic - need to try and control everybody else's sex life. A good example was the city councilman who told a local newspaper reporter that he spent virtually all of his waking hours searching out pornographic threats to his community. Read More

Negative reactivity between partners is what keeps couples making the same mistakes over and over. That's when one cannot have a negative emotion without the other responding defensively. Read More

A few weeks ago, there were several news reports discussing the family situation of a woman soldier recently back from Iraq. Before her deployment, the woman had given birth to a daughter and had shared a home with the baby's father and his parents. Read More

It is hard to appreciate how hard it is to teach complex concepts successfully. As adults, we have mastered quite a bit of math. We have learned to read critically. We have a basic understanding of the core sciences. Read More

Women are raped at will in war zones, from Berlin to Darfur.  What does this tell us about male-female relationships? Read More

This week, Suicide Prevention Week, I am posting each day about a "hot topic" in suicide prevention. Read More

Where have all the sexy men gone? Are women in serious relationships sexually starved? Remember when men wanted sex from their partners, only to be rejected by them? When women feigned headaches, fatigue, or were just not in the mood for sex? That was then and this is now. Read More

When is alternative medicine a fraud? Chiropractors, reflexology, and more. Tips to avoid being scammed. Read More

I just finished First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. I’d heard about it for years, but I didn’t actually pick up a copy until a smart friend told me to read it. The authors did a study with the Gallup Organization to find a way, among other things, to measure strong workplaces, ones that would attract and retain the most productive employees. Read More

According to the book, 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, there are many distraction techniques that have been clinically shown to help you avoid emotional eating. For example, did you know that knitting may be the perfect antidote to stress eating? So if you think knitting isn't cool, you may just want to reconsider.A 2009 study published in the journal of Eating and Weight Disorders put knitting up to the test. The researchers wanted to see if knitting had any notable clinical benefits and whether it could be a useful tool in helping people lessen the amount of obsessing they do about food and their weight. Read More

With the new television season comes new hope. That has gotten me thinking about some portrayals of single life that grabbed me in a good way. What they have in common is that they show singles as people with passions and interests and lives that are not defined solely by the quest to become unsingle.  Read More

Your boss was about to give you a new assignment, but took "just a sec" to dust off her keyboard, finish a call, send an e-mail, and check stock quotes. Then she asks, "Did you say something?" while staring blankly as if she's forgotten your name. What works with small children you are minding, overwhelmed with the world's possibilities - can also work with your esteemed, but often overwhelmed boss, who's supposed to be alert and "in charge." Without being patronizing, you can help your boss manage you, so you're not driven to distraction! Read More

If you are reading this now, you are not a cat and never will be. So along with the good days, you're going to experience the entire range of painful emotions that make us human. Read More

Don't say too much; don't say too little. That's what it takes today to be a very good writer. A hundred or so years ago, Emerson figured that out. First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process collects and explores some of Ralph Waldo Emerson's best advice on how to write... Read More

If you've had 'the dream' related to school, you know exactly what it is. This is the dream where it is the day of a final exam, and you realize that you forgot you were taking the course and therefore had not attended any of the classes, did not do the reading, and you are certainly are not prepared for today's test. Read More

In August, CBS’ “The Early Show” recognized the danger of what we’re now informally calling “nature-deficit disorder.” The show featured the 25 best cities in America for raising kids so they live healthy young lives that are connected to – not cut off – from the natural world. As coiner of the “nature deficit disorder” phrase, I couldn’t have been more pleased. But what about the rest of us, who aren’t able or willing to relocate? Read More

 I love trees. I like hugging them. I run high ridges. I walk along the ocean's edge. I love nature. We all do. How could it be otherwise? For tens and even hundreds of thousands of years, we as a species came of age through daily and intimate connection with the natural world. That propensity and need to connect - deeply and intimately - with nature is with us still. Read More

The recession has had a serious psychological impact on many businesses, due to the stress associated with layoffs. Read More

‘As I sometimes say to parents, I wish I had a dollar for every time I have read, in the last ten years, the words "children" and "crisis" in the same sentence. I'd be set for life', writes psychotherapist Dr. Read More

Between 80 and 95 percent of shopaholics are women. Read More

I love cities in the very early morning. I began rising early when my husband and I started to travel. Read More

Hi Irene, Hopefully, you can help me with my predicament. Over the past six months I've been "friends" with a 25-year-old girl. I'm a 37-year-old woman. Yeah, you know where I'm going with this! Read More

Since this is my first post, I wanted to express my delight in joining the outstanding team of bloggers at Psychology Today. Read More

Many people today think for a living. If you are one of these people, then like me you've probably noticed just how much better you are able to think after a break of some sort, especially a break where you haven't thought about work for a while.It turns out there is now some very good science that explains the value, importance and function of a mental rest. Read More

Getting your sex life back after a period of grief or loss takes effort, patience and a little guidance.  Read More

When you stop to think about it (and that's what we psychologists are trained to do), we enlist an impressive array of cognitive tactics and behavioral gambits in the daily effort to feel good about ourselves. We carry around a veritable toolbox of self-deception, including well more individual tools than I can catalog here. What follows is but a sampling of the more common strategies we employ in the daily pursuit of positive self-regard... Read More