Psychology Today posted an interesting article on human touch (1). The article considers 'Eight reasons why we need human touch more than ever' using a 200 year old discovery of a boy who had deprived of human touch and consequently had 'retarded his social and developmental capacities'. The 8 reasons cover decreased violence, greater trust between individuals, economic gain, … [Read more...]
Do our emotions have a smell?
Do our emotions have a smell? Yes is the simple answer, but perhaps not in the way you might conceptualise smell. Unlike vision, when our olfactory receptors are not being stimulated the brain is simply not processing. So if emotion does have a smell then we must be able to detect it in some way - the brain just can't help itself! Smelling your partners t-shirt soon … [Read more...]
Pets and stroke theory
Eric Berne defined a stroke as one unit of recognition. In order to understand this definition fully I like to ask the question "How do you know you exist?" To help you along with this question, just imagine for a moment that you were completely invisible. You exist but nobody can hear, see, or feel you. How long do you think it would take before you changed your view about … [Read more...]
Child abuse – what to look out for
Physical Abuse Behaviour of an adult who abuses children Behaviour of an abused child Physical indications of child abuse Complains that the child is … [Read more...]
The Newly Recognized, Shattering Effects of Child Abuse
By Alice Miller For some years now there has been proof that the devastating effects of the traumatization of children take their inevitable toll on society. This knowledge concerns every single one of us, and--if disseminated widely enough--should lead to fundamental changes in society, above all to a halt in the blind escalation of violence. The following points are … [Read more...]