Beyond Freud

A dose of common sense.

Lawrence D. Blum M.D., Leon Hoffman M.D.

Getting in Touch With Adverse Childhood Experiences in Film

Popular movies like "Black Panther" illuminate a key determinant of growth and development.

Why Don't College Students Follow COVID-19 Guidelines?

College students do what college students do.

Counterdependency and American Health

What do postpartum depression, the opiate crisis, and the gaps in our social safety net have in common? Counterdependency.

The Importance of Beauty Salons in the Age of COVID-19

People need to take care of their bodies (how they look, how they think they look, and how they feel): beauty salons, barbers, hair salons, and gymnasiums are very important.

Anxiety During COVID-19

First and foremost, listen. When someone is anxious and wants to share, they are looking for a listening ear.

Navigating Mother's Day in 2020

A mother's inner conflict over her own personal wishes as well as her feelings toward her children can cause guilt and anxiety. Understanding this is the key to balance.

Are You Grieving Yet?

In the era of covid-19, how we mourn matters.

A Novel Way to Teach Psychoanalysis

Classic children's literature and child psychoanalytic case studies provide the most direct way to learn about child development and basic psychoanalytic principles.

Resilience in the Age of COVID-19: Parents Helping Children

How can parents develop greater resilience in themselves and promote greater resilience in their children?

COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Distancing, and Adolescence

It would be more valuable to engage the adolescent or young adult in an intellectual discussion about the problem. Questions should be addressed to promote youngsters' autonomy.

How Parents Can Help Their Children During the Pandemic

The importance of parents as role models.

Helping Parents and Toddlers When Baby Comes Home

“Oh, I see. When daddy was holding the baby you felt left out. Maybe next time daddy or mommy does something that makes you feel bad you can tell us in words and not by hitting.”

What Guns Often Protect Is a Sense of Manhood

Mass murders with guns continue to occur with great frequency. This article examines a seldom-discussed obstacle to gun control.

Doctors and Guilt

Struggles with guilt can prompt a career in medicine and other helping professions, but he guilt is a risk factor for later burnout and depression.

Thoughts About Fatherhood and Father’s Day in the #Metoo Era

Fathers can encourage the development of autonomy and assertion rather than destructive aggression in both boys and girls.

Defense Mechanisms in Therapy and Parenting

Defense mechanisms, a psychoanalytic construct that has been empirically studied and validated, is likely one of Freud’s most original contributions.

Home for the Holidays

What happens during holidays and family festivities? Our routines change, our moods change, and there is a mixture of feelings.

Three Identical Strangers

Psychoanalysts study how people, including themselves, unconsciously deceive themselves. Three Identical Strangers forecloses that discussion.

Manipulators of Our Unconscious Desires

We all are vulnerable to the entreaties of hucksters and tricksters.

Countertransference in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

By recognizing the complex interplay between patient and analyst in the sessions, the analyst helps the patient understand the nature and origin of his/her maladaptive interactions

How Psychoanalysis Helps: Part 2

A major tool utilized in a psychodynamic therapy is what is labeled as addressing or analyzing the transference.

How Psychoanalysis Helps

Why do people seek a talking treatment?

An Unexpected Sight in the Rearview Mirror

It is unusual, at age 75, to suddenly view more than 50 years of struggles in an entirely new light.

Towards a Reinvigoration of Our Pluralistic System

How can we promote the value of a pluralistic system with checks and balances? Economic revitalization is not enough.

Medication For Life

Some people need medication to live. Are others put on unneeded medication for life?

Voting for the Magic Wand, or Trump's Phallic Victory

Voters are influenced by powerful fantasies that pundits don't talk about.

Madness and Guns

The ability to control anger, and to distinguish fantasy from reality, are difficult tasks to master. What does this mean for access to weapons?

Are We Living in Salem Circa 1693? Lessons for America 2016

A great deal has been written about the dangers of ultra-nationalistic leaders in today's world. But only recently, have we begun to talk about the potential dangers of groups.

Therapeutic Euphemism: Niceness Isn't Always Kind

The use of euphemistic language in psychotherapy, by either the patient or the therapist, can be a therapeutic obstacle, but understanding this usage provides opportunity.

Why Are Painful Emotions So Hard to Handle?

Throughout development, maturity lessons need to be learned and re-learned in order to best master the inevitable disappointments of life.

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