mind over matter

First there were rent-a-cops, then there were drop-in health clinics (doc-in-a-boxes), and now there’s MindMentor.com, your robot psychologist friend. I stumbled upon this friendly-looking health professional in a press release here. His website makes a lot of promises:

He’s an electronic psychologist.
He’s always available.
He’s very discreet.
He’s fast.
You can afford him.

Um, wow. “His average solution percentage is […]

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Just read a really interesting Q&A with Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University and the head of a political and corporate consulting firm, Westen Strategies. He’s also the author of “The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation,” and it seems he feels Barack Obama’s […]

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So, I’m finally caught up on Season Ten of America’s Next (Tenth-) Top Model, and I’m actually feeling a little guilt as to how much I am enjoying it.
Not just because it’s saccharine-sweet and all about Tyra and a celebration of superficiality and excess. What got to me this time was the exploitation of young […]

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One of the largest eating disorder treatment centers in Britain has asked social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook to close down pro-anorexia Web sites. In response, the sites made the brilliant excuse that it’s difficult to distinguish between support groups and pro-eating-disorder groups. Aha.
For the answer, let’s turn to my former my newsroom-mate David […]

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Valentine’s Week is over, but I’m keeping things lovey-dovey by posting an interview with a dear friend who has recently gotten engaged (aww). Catherine, you must tell me if I’m getting too personal - I forget that others have qualms about strangers peering into their personal lives (I guess it’s easy to be open when there’s little to report, eh?). 
For a […]

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Another quickie today. My friend Megan Brown is writing a three-part series for the Daily Northwestern about her foray into online dating. Going beyond her maverick field reporting, she also spoke with an expert about the stigma attached to internet match-making:
“People don’t want to admit they have to go out and pay for a service,” […]

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Surely you’ve seen the previews by now. In Moment of Truth, normal, nice-seeming Americans volunteer themselves for the “hot seat” - answering increasingly personal questions for cash while friends and family members look on. If the polygraph suggests a lie, the contestant loses all his or her winnings, and wins a very, very uncomfortable ride home. […]

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I’m going to go ahead and barrel into the elephant in the room: Heath Ledger died in his SoHo apartment today, and a drug overdose may have been the cause. He was 28.
Nevermind that I used to date a guy who lives on the very same block, and evidently I’ve walked past Heath Ledger’s apartment many […]

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New York Times health columnist Dr. Richard Friedman, age 51, recently wrote an article chalking up the so-called midlife crisis to narcissism and the natural pursuit of novelty. After describing several cases of Nascar Dads Behaving Badly, Friedman suggests that the mid-life crisis is not exactly a common experience, but rather what happens when already-narcissistic […]

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Alright, I could only put off talking about cra’y-cra’y Brit-Brit and Dr. Phil for so long. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard about this celebrity showdown, but just to bring you up to speed: After Britney was restrained and rushed to a hospital, her fam called on Dr. Phil and asked […]

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