It has become a tradition where I teach for the students to make “National Day of Silence” a part of the year. This is national youth movement where silence is used as a tool to make others aware of the silence, often a quietude of contempt or ignoring, faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Mental-health issues with and among gay teens include coming-out and bullying. Now, these issues will be portrayed in the perennial Archie comic-book series. Kevin Keller is a gay teen who made his debut in the Veronica comic book last year. Now Kevin will debut in a four-part series, the first from a major comic-book publisher. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Student Allyse Bamonte responds: Alyssa, what a terrible situation you had to experience. Unfortunately, this guy’s insecurities drove him to put you down in order to make himself feel better. Stories similar to Alyssa’s are all too common nowadays. On the news, bullying often comes up a few times a month. When and how did […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.A college student, Alyssa Cariani, responds to our recent article on bullying and hazing: “I, along with millions of others, have been a victim of online bullying. In high school, a seemingly shy boy I had known for years asked me on a date. As I was not interested in this person, I respectfully declined […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.In the increasing discussions that are being conducted on bullying, we have mentioned here that bullying is a phenomenon that can occur “across the entire lifespan.” Bullying occurs not just in schools but in career and employment situations, volunteer organizations, churches, and families. It should be no surprise that bullying occurs in colleges and universities. […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.E. Fuller Torrey, psychiatrist and author of Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual, writes in the Wall Street Journal about the necessity of mandated treatment and the responsibility of public-health authorities to monitor those severely mentally ill persons who need this. Torrey writes… “The killing of six people in Tucson is one more sad episode in […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Tragic events this past week in Arizona, involving Jared Lee Loughner, have once again brought to public awareness the question of treatment for seriously disturbed people who live in our midst, and in particular the issues concerning what to do when one of them is a college student and his or her behavior is a […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Although this blog is not a forum for literary critiques and commentary, my recent four-month wrestling match with The Karamazov Brothers (the translator of the edition I found in my branch of the New York Public Library maintains it is as ridiculous to call the book “The Brothers Karamazov” as it is to refer to […]
By: Evander LomkeMost readers here probably acknowledge the existence of ADHD: as something they themselves suffer from or as something they know as “true” from its presence in a family member or close friend. Yet it is interesting that a case needs to be made for the existence of this problem. Dr. Perri Klass does so in […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The antics and dangerous deployment of an emergency jet chute by former Jet Blue Airlines employee Steven Slater captivated media attention a few months ago. The case his since been pleaded in court. Slater has come to represent to Americans disgruntled and disturbed employees of all kinds. Recently the American Psychological Association has showcased the […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.For many acne is the bane of growing up and for some acne continues through adulthood. Acne can elicit both teasing and sympathy from others, and like many things, perhaps it is only the sufferer of acne who realizes its true effect on the body and beyond. New research is looking at how acne affects […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Parents and those who work with children have long recognized the difficulty in gaining a bed for a child in a children’s psychiatric unit of a general hospital (these are rare), a large university or teaching hospital, or a specialized children’s psychiatric center. These kinds of placements are crucial when a child is psychotic, suicidal, […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Many of us will celebrate Mass with African priests who come to the United States from various countries in Africa. While these priests are helping us and bring us the Sacraments, at the same time many take advantage of educational opportunities in the United States with hopes to bring this knowledge back to their home […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.This video makes my skin crawl. It shows one of the most pernicious forms of bullying. (The video almost makes me want to stop rooting for the Yankees, which I have been doing for more years than I can count. Fortunately, they have no part in this horror.) Homophobia and Sports Fans on YouTube
By: Evander LomkeFor nearly the past 60 years, the psychiatric profession has published a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual describing different mental conditions that are treated by psychiatrists. The first manual was spiral bound and was made up of fewer than 80 pages. DSM IV has become a major reference work, with hundreds of pages and many auxiliary […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.We have previously written how pack-rat tendencies in their extreme form can be a form of obsessive compulsive disorder. With this in mind, I think it’s fair to say that many keep old medications in the medicine cabinet for those just in case emergencies, unlikely as they may be. This tendency toward saving prescription drugs […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Also posted in AMERICA magazine; please go to here to make comments or read the comments of others Perhaps we cloud this topic with euphemisms: but many a boy or growing young man who is poor at sports faces hurdles of bias, loneliness, and rejection. Despite many ways of compensating (intellectual, musical, artistic), poor athletic […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The New York Times weighs in with a thoughtful article on more than a child-rearing question: Are we doing right by the next generation when early signs of emotional distress are expressed? This is an issue of national concern. Even though AMHF is concentrating its efforts more toward “the other end” of the population spectrum, […]
By: Evander LomkeJoanna Weiss has a slightly different take on bullying as she analyzes the trial of six young women. They are accused of bullying another adolescent so brutally as to cause her to hang herself. The entire article is worth reading. See Article on Bullying by Joanna Weiss in the Boston Globe
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.New York Times continues on the subject of Bullying through the Life Cycle.
By: Evander LomkeDr. Norman Reed, a clinical psychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of violent children and adolescents, has joined our Professional Advisory Board. For nearly 30 years he has worked in various programs for these youngsters in the State of Oregon. Welcome, Dr. Reed!
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.As experts and the public ask for and learn more and more about bullying, not only is its presence in schools better known, but one begins to wonder about all the other situations across the lifespan where bullying occurs. Some possibilities: *Siblings bullying each other *Parents bullying teachers *Cliques that bully other cliques *Boys that […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Eric J. Green writes about Jungian Play therapy in his article Traversing the heroic journey,” which appeared in the March 2010 issue of Counseling Today, published by the American Counseling Association Here are some of his ideas: “One of our primary tasks as child counselors is to provide an emotionally safe and protective space within […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.A different approach to the treatment of eating disorders–one combining elements of behavior therapy, flooding, and family therapy has become known as the Maudsley Approach. Rather than using psychological therapies and medication, this approach uses the family as the core element of treatment. What occurs is that the entire family makes a commitment to live/eat […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Glenn Close, award-winning actress who has become an advocate for persons with bipolar disorder and other severe mental illnesses, will be the Keynote Speaker at Neuroscience 2010 , the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society of Neuroscience, to be held in San Diego from November 13-17th, 2010. Close has developed a special interest in mental […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Many of the public and well as the mental health professions have never heard of the phrase “sports wound.” This refers to males who do not display athletic prowess or good eye-hand coordination. As much as we may want to deny this, boys who lack sports ability often are teased and bullied through their growing […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Today on the news, television reporters spoke of a new law that will mandate school officials to intervene and report instances in bullying. The bill was proposed after one student committed suicide following bullying. One of the more-fascinating aspects of the increased awareness or incidence of bullying, and what appears to be ineffective adult intervention, […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.There’s too much bullying going on and not enough being done to stop it. In all fairness, many have the good will and courage and desire to confront bullying but want to make sure it is done properly so as to not make a bad situation worse. AMHF is monitoring the psychological damage done to […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.
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