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Archive for July, 2011

The Sun is the centerpiece of our solar system, the gravity force that keeps everything together. Here is an overview of this source of our existence.

An Overview of the Sun

The Sun is a star, one of billions in the known universe. It is similar to other stars you see in the night sky, but is prominent in our lives because we orbit it once every 365 days.

The process pivotal in the creation of the Sun goes on to this very day. Roughly 4.5 billion years ago, a massive gas cloud surrounded by dust began to compress. As one small part gained in density, it started to produce a small gravitational pull. Over time, this sucked the rest of the gas and dust into an increasingly smaller area. Nobody is sure what first set off the gravity movement, but it may have been a supernova.

As the disk of material compressed, it created more gravity and sucked in more material. With spin induced, the disk produced heat. Throw in a bit of helium and trace elements and you have a cauldron that eventually became our Sun.
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Psychology is more an art form than a science. There is no “Theory of Everything” from which one can derive all mental health phenomena and make falsifiable predictions. Still, as far as personality disorders are concerned, it is easy to discern common features. Most personality disorders share a set of symptoms (as reported by the patient) and signs (as observed by the mental health practitioner).
Patients suffering from personality disorders have these things in common:

They are persistent, relentless, stubborn, and insistent (except those suffering from the Schizoid or the Avoidant Personality Disorders).

They feel entitled to – and vociferously demand – preferential treatment and privileged access to resources and personnel. They often complain about multiple symptoms. They get involved in “power plays” with authority figures (such as physicians, therapists, nurses, social workers, bosses, and bureaucrats) and rarely obey instructions or observe rules of conduct and procedure.

They hold themselves to be superior to others or, at the very least, unique. Many personality disorders involve an inflated self-perception and grandiosity. Such subjects are incapable of empathy (the ability to appreciate and respect the needs and wishes of other people). In therapy or medical treatment, they alienate the physician or therapist by treating her as inferior to them.

Patients with personality disorders are self-centered, self-preoccupied, repetitive, and, thus, boring.

Subjects with personality disorders seek to manipulate and exploit others. They trust no one and have a diminished capacity to love or intimately share because they do not trust or love themselves. They are socially maladaptive and emotionally unstable.

No one knows whether personality disorders are the tragic outcomes of nature or the sad follow-up to a lack of nurture by the patient’s environment.

Generally speaking, though, most personality disorders start out in childhood and early adolescence as mere problems in personal development. Exacerbated by repeated abuse and rejection, they then become full-fledged dysfunctions. Personality disorders are rigid and enduring patterns of traits, emotions, and cognitions. In other words, they rarely “evolve” and are stable and all-pervasive, not episodic. By ‘all-pervasive”, I mean to say that they affect every area in the patient’s life: his career, his interpersonal relationships, his social functioning.

Personality disorders cause unhappiness and are usually comorbid with mood and anxiety disorders. Most patients are ego-dystonic (except narcissists and psychopaths). They dislike and resent who they are, how they behave, and the pernicious and destructive effects they have on their nearest and dearest. Still, personality disorders are defense mechanisms writ large. Thus, few patients with personality disorders are truly self-aware or capable of life transforming introspective insights. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction:

This article covers the basics of Astrology and how they are inter-related. Astrology is defined as ‘the art or practice of determining the supposed influences of the planets and their motions on human affairs and human disposition’. From this practice a horoscope can be produced – a diagram (or chart) of the relative positions of planets and signs of the Zodiac at a specific time, usually the time of birth. A forecast can then be produced.

The Zodiac:

Western Astrology originated way back, around 500 BC, with a concept called the Zodiac being developed. This comprised of an imaginary sphere surrounding the earth, which followed the path of the Sun through the constellations during the year. The Zodiac was split into twelve sections, each named after the specific constellation noted in that area.

Elements:

Many ancient philosophies used a set of classical elements to explain the way nature behaved. Each sign was connected to one of the classical elements (fire, earth, air, or water) and was also related to a region of focus; social, personal or universal.
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Are you afraid of crime? Do you think about becoming the victim of crime often? According to the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, many Americans fear becoming the victim of crime often. As I will show in this article, the fear crosses all lines—sex, race, education, age and profession. Subjects were asked if they were afraid to walk alone around their neighborhood or any area within one mile from it at night. The results may surprise you. They will clearly show that fear of walking alone at night is one of the most common fears among Americans.

According to the most recent data available, only 19% of all men surveyed said they felt safe walking at night alone around their neighborhood. In stark contrast, 47% of all women surveyed said they felt perfectly fine walking alone. Looking back at the earliest numbers available, which would be from 1973, illustrates that this response is normal. In 1973, only 20% of men surveyed felt safe walking alone at night verses an astounding 59% for women.

Among white individuals, an average of 30% feel safe walking at night in their neighborhoods. Contrast that to the 41% of black individuals that felt safe. Even though there is a slight disparity among races, the numbers still show that the majority of people don’t feel safe at night. Historically, the numbers for white individuals who feel safe at night has always been 10-22% lower. The numbers only go back to 1973. One would think that the numbers might be different if the study was conducted in the 1950s and 1960s.
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