Cynicism
Cynicism: a nicely burning fire is no more. From its ditch of retreat, now and then another fire comes forth, meant to hurt and even destroy. Etymology of ‘cynic’: κυνικοι (kunikoi): ‘dogs’ in ancient Greek referring to ruthless behavior and simple lifestyle of a number of their followers, as exemplified by Diogenes, nicknamed ‘the dog’. Read the full article…
Mind-Body Column – Intro
‘Mind-Body’ texts are written mainly for healthcare providers but also for broad public. These texts are intended to let readers each time again reflect for a while about psyche-related subjects in an intriguing way. Philosophical now and then and nevertheless also with concrete relevance to medical practice. The basic idea is that in medical thinking Read the full article…
The Leader and the Boss
A boss shouts, even when he listens. A leader listens, even when he talks. In ‘Open Leadership’ philosophy we look in an open way at the total person of the leader as well as of his co-workers. We are interested in the conscious thinking AND the non-conscious thinking in as far as we can get Read the full article…
Landscape of Empathy
This drawing is an attempt to make appropriate distinctions in a complex reality around ‘empathy’. Terms that are used to point towards the distinct parts – as always – contain arbitrariness. Disclaimer Please take this with a grain of salt. The drawing is a metaphor to make some things clear while other important distinctions are Read the full article…
38. An Addiction is No ‘Bad Habit’
You are doing everyone a favor by pointing at the ‘circle of addiction’. Many people who are seriously addicted, see this as a ‘bad habit’. They say, “I will stop smoking if I feel like it, but that is not the case yet.” Okay, but what if this “I do not feel like stopping yet” Read the full article…
37. The Thorn in the Eye of the Needle
Acupuncture is a matter of art and philosophy, not of steel and energy. It exists already for so lang. Surely that cannot be true if it would not be effective? But of course it can. Just as a reminder: until the early nineteenth century, we in Europe have been happy with ‘body fluids medicine’, for Read the full article…
36. Meditation, a World of Difference
In serious meditation you will also find the sharpening of the own instrument to empathy. Meditation has many faces. It makes no sense to list many forms of meditation that differ greatly among themselves. Here below I prefer to enumerate some elements of what meditation is and is not, according to me. What meditation is Read the full article…
35. Pedophilia is Not a Matter for Children
No one is guilty of pedophilia, but indeed of actions that might result from it. A pedophile is not just someone who is molesting children by lack of adults. A pedophile feels sexually strongly attracted to children. This attraction comes from ‘somewhere outside conscious thinking’ just as, mutatis mutandis, when someone feels more and more Read the full article…
34. From Burnout to Butterfly
People are reborn in order to spread out their wings. Burnout is a pupating Nature is not as stupid as it looks. Especially not if one only looks at it with only half an eye to already decide that it is stupid. So, a lot of ‘illness’ is a healthy response to an unhealthy environment. Read the full article…
33. Phobia: Anxiety for the Spider Within
The real spider is present in the phobic person himself. Anxiety is not the same as fear I ‘get a little scared’ when I see the dentist approaching with his squirt. There are more pleasant situations. There is a little fear involved. Someone who faints at the idea or the sight of a syringe, however, Read the full article…
32. Hypnocus Pocus & Co.
“Everything that is possible with hypnosis is also possible without hypnosis.” Freud, suggestion, Braid, Liège At the beginning of his career, Freud flirted with hypnosis. Evil tongues claim that this was not his favorite because he could not get along very well with ‘the nonconscious’. So, he developed, with the help of psychoanalysis, a vision Read the full article…
31. Psychosis: a Needless Tsunami
A tsunami requires a surfboard About ripples and a tsunami Is an abnormality of the brain the cause of psychosis? One can at least search for that. Probably one will find, in due course, more and more elements that fit the bill. I am sure one will. Everything that happens at a psychological level, has Read the full article…
30. The Cheapest War is No War
o Mega savings by making peace The enemy ‘disease’? Our medicine is an attacking medicine. It is targeted at an enemy, called ‘disease’. To this end it uses weapons, called ‘pharmaceutical products’, ‘surgery’ and so on. But first it will, as befits an atttacking medicine, identify the enemy: ‘medical history’, ‘clinical investigations’, ‘laboratory ‘ etc. Read the full article…
29. Chronic Functional Pain: All for One?
Different functional pain syndromes have more similarities than differences. Chronic functional pain as one syndrome The following quote is from Mayer & Bushnell, editors of ‘Functional Pain Syndromes’, 2009, from their word for this Yearbook, published by the ‘International Association for the Study of Pain’ (possibly the most scientifically renowned Association of the world that Read the full article…
28. The Meaning of Meaning
Deep meanings sicken and heal. Nothing has meaning except meaning itself ‘Meaning’ only lives in a signifier (meaning-giver). This text for example, has no meaning for a turtle unless it likes to eat the paper on which the text is printed. More generally: If there is no one to understand this text, then it’s just Read the full article…
27. Why We Sink into CAM
CAM is like an amoeba. Not more rational than trial and error and some super simplicity. Common sense According to research in the US, it are mainly people with a higher education that practice CAM (Complementary & Alternative Medicine). Does this mean that common sense sees through the CAM thing much faster? Or do highly Read the full article…
26. Do You Not Smoke Right Now, or Do You Not Smoke Anymore?
Smoking does not (necessarily) make the smoker Psyche, nicotine It’s common knowledge that the physical aspect is just a little part of the total addiction. The biggest part of an addiction is present ‘in the mind’. Nicotine is not much more than the leverage of the jack with which the real smoking addiction is being Read the full article…