Welcome to the Existential Roundup, where we bring you links to some articles currently trending that may be of interest to those in the existential-humanistic psychology community. The New York Times article “When Grief Won’t Relent” discusses the difference between typical grief from the loss of a loved one and when it crosses the line… Read more »
Author: Donna Rockwell
Polarization and the DSM-5: Conversations About the Politics of Diagnosis and Medication in Mental Health
[Editor’s Note: Listen to Louis Hoffman speak about the DSM-5 controversy on City Visions radio on KALW.] The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is receiving a dramatic increase of attention since the new version (i.e., the DSM-5) became available. This discussion is important given the DSM-5 is not just another book; it… Read more »
DSM-5 Round Two: With DSM-5 Approval, Society for Humanistic Psychologyês Efforts to Reform Psychiatric Diagnosis Start Anew
Photo by Richard Masoner. On December 1, without much fanfare, the Board of the American Psychiatric Association approved the draft of the DSM-5. Even as of today, more than a week later, very few news outlets have covered this major story. It seems as though the American Psychiatric Association would rather keep things quiet rather… Read more »
The Space Around Thoughts
Life. Running here and there. Pre-occupied with this and that. Swept away by one thought or another. We barely have time enough to notice time passing, never mind the preposterous proposition, dare I say, to notice not just our thoughts, but the space around them: a momentary peripheral reverberation, an infinitesimal synaptic break between cognitions,… Read more »
Follow the DSM-5 controversy with The New Existentialists
The New Existentialists, a Saybrook University-based website dedicated to promoting the work of the 21st century’s Existential Psychology movement, has added a new section following the controversy surrounding the DSM-5 … the so-called “Bible” of psychiatry. “While the DSM has had a long history of controversy since its first edition was published in 1952, with… Read more »
Fame is a Dangerous Drug: A phenomenological glimpse of celebrity
Photo by Luca Viscardi (Creative Commons License) Fame is a dangerous drug. I should know. I wrote the book on it — or, rather, the book chapter. That chapter, “Ready for the Close-up: Celebrity experience and the phenomenology of fame,” describes the dead-end cycle of fame’s merry-go-round through first-hand reports of celebrity experience in the… Read more »
Existentialism and the DSM-5: Humanizing Mental Health
What is the link between existentialism and a manual that gives most people on the planet their mental health diagnoses? From Major Depressive Disorder, to ADHD, to Asperger’s Syndrome, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is the book in which psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals find the codes needed that allow… Read more »
Journey to the East
There is no escape Editor’s note: this is a summary of research findings that Donna Rockwell, PsyD, will present in China at the Second International Conference on Existential Psychology on mindfulness in clinical psychology training, May 24 – 27, in Shanghai. I am taking mindfulness to the East. It is something that I am rather excited about, and would never… Read more »