Is Homophobia a Mental Disorder?
When I was doing research for my graduate thesis, I came across a fascinating and--for its time--radical theory that homophobia, rather than homosexuality, better fits the criteria for a "mental illness." The proponent of this notion was a psychologist, George Weinberg, who in fact invented the term homophobia and helped lead the effort to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in the early 1970s. Weinberg contended that homophobi
The Grand American Happiness Myth
I think a lot about the #work #culture #happiness #money #stress
The Unexpected Reason Why Work-Life Balance Is So Hard to Achieve
America has a productivity problem, and it isn't that we aren't working enough. In fact, the opposite tends to be true: Americans work more hours than most industrialized countries (although that is beginning to shift). A new study sheds light on an unexpected reason why we work so much. According to this study, the drive to accumulate more than we consume - even when it makes us unhappy - may be deeply ingrained in us. There may be an evolutionary imperative to accumulate a
Exciting & Helpful or Disappointing & Pointless? Thoughts on Grindr, Scruff, Growlr, etc.
Nevermind that its logo looks like serial killer in a hockey mask—Grindr is harmless and fun, right? I have given a lot of thought to that question over the years as Grindr (along with its competitors Scruff, GROWLr, Recon, and Jack'D) has come into near-universal use among gay men. In some ways, these "social networking apps" (AKA hookup apps) represent a culmination of the gay male sexual liberation movement - a technologicy that can aid gay men in satisfying their desire f
AMERICAN GENDERS: Transgender and Two-Spirit
The following is a fabulous guest post by Jonathan Whittle-Utter. Jonathan, a practicing massage therapist, yoga teacher and somatic healer, is completing a Somatic Psychology PhD program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Wingnut fundamentalist Pat Robertson recently shocked both sides of the political aisle by publicly proclaiming that there is nothing wrong with being transgendered. If that isn’t a sign of times changing, I don’t know what is. In the last few decades, Amer
