Feeling Our Way

Turn in the direction of the skid.

The Lose-Lose Comment Is a Therapist’s Best Friend

Successful therapy depends on the fact that the patient will mess up the therapy in the same way as other relationships.

On Being the Instrument of Change

You can’t get better at anything unless you’re willing to look like you need to get better at it.

What It Means to Be Liked

When we say that two people like each other, we often mean that they facilitate each other’s performances.

Three Kinds of Men

Power signals among men—and the regular guys caught in the middle.

Why I Don’t Start Therapy with a “History”

We have to have a sense of who we are to function, but that same sense limits us.

Better Call Saul and the Case Formulation

Explain the problem the dyad will work on in psychological terms and make it clear how the therapy will help.

Life Advice: Check Your Role

You ought to be talking pretty regularly with someone you’re dating about how each of you sees the role of romantic partner or spouse.

A Behavioristic Look at Addiction

Successful treatments for addiction must have, broadly speaking, three components, aimed at broadening reinforcement, alleviating withdrawal if present, and tolerating extinction.

How to Think About Gender

Gender refers to the repertoire of behaviors that is maintained by differential reinforcement because of the person’s sex.

How to Live a Finite Life

Some forms of psychopathology are usefully considered as problematic framings of time horizons.

Are Your Looks in Decline?

Sexual attractiveness and aging.

Separating Families at the Border

Are your outrages properly aligned?

The Lure of Contentment

Wu wei, wu yu, woo woo, and wu moo.

Is Your Therapist Providing Palliative Care?

Much psychotherapy is an opiate.

The Case for Stigmatizing Psychological Problems

Stigma can spur people to behave better, even as it causes anxiety about falling short.

How to Think About ADHD

The more sedentary our society becomes, the more likely that any difficulties with sitting still will be a disorder.

The Ugly American Goes to College

The educational culture that produces better people has been colonized by the moneychangers.

Arming Teachers and Five Kinds of Violence

School shooters think of themselves as if they are in an action movie.

Biology Is More Than the Body

Even a purely biological view of people would be grander than contemporary psychology’s.

What Political System Rules Your Psyche?

Since we are not unitary selves, but an assortment of response repertoires, emotions, and goals, we need some system of government to secure the blessings of liberty.