Dr. James Husen, Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Attorney, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

  I've been studying Moral Foundations Theory and reading this morning from  Graham, J., Nosek, B. A., Haidt, J., Iyer, R., Koleva, S., & Ditto, P. H. (2011). Mapping the moral domain.  Journal of personality and social psychology ,  101 (2), 366. If you click the link you can hear some of my reading and studies. Moral Foundations Theory begins with the idea that " Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, institutions, technologies, evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible.” (p. 368) While traditionally, Kohlberg and Gilligan tended to tap into Justice and Care as the foundation of research into morality. This led to what Haidt and his line of researchers would call "truncated" views of morality emphasizing rational codes of conduct that reduce harm to others.  Kohlberg himself posited three levels of moral development each having two stages.

 I still remember the first time I heard the term spiritual bypass. I was at a weekend seminar with Dr. Daniel Seigel at a large church in Pasadena. A young pastor asked a question about spiritual bypass which sparked my curiosity.  That would have been about 10 years ago. Since that time I have thought, studied, and discussed the topic with others. I've even written about it in my reports where the issue has come up.  Essentially, spiritual bypass occurs when a person has a transcendent experience which is associated with a new path or direction in life. For Christians it is often a born again experience. For Buddhists it often involves the peace and presence found in meditation--especially group meditation. For others it will be something similar which connects the individual with a group who have experienced or routinely experience transcendence in it's various permutations.  In the Christian tradition there is the idea that in the born again experience the individual has be

  Why does Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Work? I love the power of the mind body psychotherapies to heal not just PTSD but anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders. EMDR and many offshoots from EMDR, including Brainspotting (David Grand), Comprehensive Resource Model (Lisa Schwarz), and many others such as Lifespan Integration Theory (Peggy Pace). So what I thought I'd do is read relevant chapters on the theory behind these different therapies to you: 1. EMDR  Russell, M. C., & Shapiro, F. (2022).  Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.  American Psychological Association .  https://doi.org/10.1037/0000273-000 , Chapter 3, Theory; 2.  Pace ,  P.  (2003).  Lifespan integration: Connecting ego-states through time . Eirene Imprint ; 3. Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.; and,  4. Schwarz, L., Corrigan, F., Hull, A., & Raju, R. (2017). The comprehensiv

  A lack of power is synonymous with “helplessness or weakness”. It is the opposite of feeling “strong”.  Rollo M ay said there are five kinds of power: 1. Exploitative: 2. Manipulative 3. Competitive 4. Nutrient 5. Integrative At the attached link I read from May's 1972 book on power. ( May ,  R.  (1972).  Power and innocence: A search for the source of violence . Norton at  pp. 105-113) Social psychologists have researched 5 sources of social power or influence. These include (1) reward power, based on a person’s perceptio n that another person or entity has the ab il ity to distribute rewards in exchange for obedience of some sort; (2) coe r cive p owe r , based on a person’s perception th a t another person or entity has to ability to punish him or her; (3) legitimate power, based on th e perception that another has a communally sanctioned or l egitimate right to prescribe behavior for him or her; (4) referent power, based on the subject’s identification with th

 Baumeister's Self Explained I've started reading Dr. Baumeister's The Self Explained. The hardback hasn't been released yet but the Ebook has. I'm excited to be learning from such a master. I plan to read portions of the book for you so you can follow along if you desire. Part 1: The Remarkable Human Self  1. Chapter 1, What is the Self, pp. 3 through 9 . 2. Chapter 2, The Self in Social Context, pp. 10 through 21 . 3. Chapter 3. How the Western Self was Shaped, pp. 22 through 35.   4. Chapter, 4, Different Societies Make Different Kinds of Selves, pp. 36 through 41. 5. Chapter 5, Four Pitfalls of Self Theories: No Self, Multiples Selves, True/Authentic Selves, and Self Actualization, pp. 42 through 64 . Part 2: Why Do We Have Selves? 6. Chapter 6: Some Beginnings of Self (pp. 65-73) 7. Chapter 7: How Baby Grows Up To Have a Working Self (pp. 74-93) 8. Chapter 8: Human Groups Need (And Shape) Selves (pp. 94-103) . 9. Chapter 9: Moral Reputation as Foundation to Sel

 The Logic of Trauma Reading Freud this afternoon I am reminded that Trauma resides in the unconscious and more specifically procedural memory bypassing conscious recall when activated. 1 Sensory and/or situational cues associated with unresolved trauma activate amygdala driven high intensity HPA stress responses. Traumatic memory by definition is implicit, procedural, somatic and unconscious. Residing in the unconscious such memories are triggered “automatically in the course of perceiving”. Traumatic memories evade the normal healing and integrative powers of time and bypass rational thought. They carry a logic of their own—the logic of survival. 2 The beauty of healing from trauma involves a restoration in six key areas of functioning: 1. Emotional and Impulse Control; 2. Attention and Concentration; 3. Self-Perception; 4. Relationships; 5. Somatic Health; and, 6. Systems of Meaning. 3 References 1. Freud, S. (1915) The Unconscious. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psyc

 In this short reading I discuss Demand Characteristics and how the relate to experimenter bias and the need to control for such in conducting research and, in my profession, child custody evaluations. Click the link below to hear my reading about Clever Hans and an interesting take on Hans and the implications of Pgunsts' (1911) research into the Clever Hans case as it relates to studies of animal language, especially that of apes and chimpanzees. Demand Characteristics