continue from last week’s Diathesis and illness. 1st step of assessment:

how many intimate relations, when started, how many times divorced, vocational history, how many jobs in last four years (25 in one year). General medical history: Ever banged in the head with a period of unconsciousness, substance abuse history, rate of alcohol, how many prescriptions drugs (go to more than one physician for prescription drugs), caffeine, nicotine both substance (eg. grad lived with Dean, drank about 25 coffees a day, anxiety reduced when coffee reduced. Previously thought it was the thought of separation but it was the coffee. Psychological Tests: MMPI - | T Scores | Raw score converted to T score Therefore, general population is 50 as far as T | score Standard Deviation: reflect amount of vulnerability in population Curve - + 1 68% _________340 bottom curve - + 2 95% +3 99% of population So in T score S.D. = 10 L- lie factor F- Impression management (want you to think they are crazy). If try to make selves virtuous - if try to pass off as mother Theresa will be nicer. Some do think they are Saints. to be continued with K Scale I know this is probably boring for you but please bear with me. I need to have this for myself as notes. I write all my notes at lectures etc....Did you know that if you write your notes rather than typing them in a session, you retain it more? Next week, I will give you a break from this and begin writing my theology notes as promised. This will interchange every two weeks. Have a great week, balance your life and if you are not happy, why not begin a new trend for yourself to move in that direction? What do you think?

Diathesis and illness - psychology notes (part one - I will complete this portion next week)

Concept is vulnerability of individual for particular disorder. Salient - notion of stress studies of animals: they all came down with the same disorder. Example: (I have deleted part of these notes from the blog because I do not think that the example is appropriate for the public. However, I have kept the notes for my self. Suffice to say that the experiment conducted on animals to induce stress caused more general responses such as stomach ulcers. Humans - relatively small set of responses - some backaches, some headaches, some ulcers. General adaption syndrome: Does not matter what stressor is the type of response a person has - seems to be genetic in a large roll. eg. two parents with ulcers - children also. If parents develop headache when stressed - children also get headaches when stressed. This all falls under the notion of diathesis - High diathesis: more vulnerable. Reference to the DSM in these notes is prior to recent changes. There is mention of some changes to the DSM in prior blogs. DSM - why formulated. DSM looks at either you have it or you do not. If there is a possible nine criteria and you have 5 or more, you have diagnosis. If you have 4, than you do not. There is a problem with that. Hypothetical case: You have two people with different symptoms and they share only one symptom. In theory because they have the same amount numerically but share one, should the treatment be the same? The second problem - There were 11 personality disorders. Eg. A- schizophrenics , paranoids etc. B. narcissistic, border line, anti socials etc… C. avoidant, dependent, obsessive compulsive, depressive 7-9 symptoms for most of them 4-5 7/4 x 6x5x4x3x2 etc = 5000 ways to see how many different ways can people be so broad and lacking makes you wonder if it is good. So, what are alternative ways of looking at abnormal disorders. Behaviours can be measured. The notion that behaviour can be measured. Look at it two ways. 1. Dimensional Constructs: {_________________} ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ if IQ scale ‘ ‘ more intelligent than 2. It allows you to fractionate into smaller sub units. Example memory - with careful measure - know individually stored and can be disrupted by drugs etc… 1 disease - know it is a woman but not if she is a daughter, wife or neighbour. Looking at things dimensionally rather than -categorical is finer. First step of assessment 1. Clinical interview. First goal is to determine what the problem is. Example. Male comes with mother in law problem. The problem is not her, it is his temper, among other things. People would think they have one problem and find out it is another. Example: one male went to a Chiropractor for six months for a back problem. Then he went to a MD - He had a tumour and died three weeks later. Sometimes it is easier to know what it isn’t then to know what it is. To rule out, establish a rapport. If there is no rapport established then the person will not open up and you do not get the whole picture. Often you won’t get it all in the first interview. Interviews can be helped if you have a type of structure. It does not have to be rigid. Semi structure - Free to modify suggested question. If interviewing grade 5 level - no 50 cents words. Semi structure interview is the SCID. Another approach is in structured interview - it can be fun if you have time for patients. Patient may be uncomfortable. Example a pedophile - would talk about something else. Another thing is that it may not be known to them such as the mother in law mentioned above. You want to get a sense of their history. Prof does it: Family of Origin, siblings and order- parents married? When remarried, divorced, dead. Get what life was like, school, education, friends - what kind - music, scholar, holding up stores etc…. how many intimate relations……….to be continued….. I have taken some notes out for you not to see because I consider it a tad inappropriate outside the classroom. I will be continuing with these particular notes next week because I have been very busy - sorry. I do not diagnose. If I think that a diagnosis is required than I ask the client to see a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor with three years of psychology as per my latest info. Sometimes medication is required and sometimes there is a chemical imbalance. I like to have my clients have a complete physical to ensure that there is nothing physical going on as well. My interviews are somewhat unstructured depending on the client. However, I have had many years of interviewing people and so most of my previous education and work experience aides me as a psychotherapist. Critical listening is very important. I do have forms with much of the information that is indicated in the first step. I have found that it is very common that someone believes he or she has one problem but when the client is able to take a step backward and examine his or her situation, often there are other reasons which has impacted him or her. Sometimes people have kept so much within themselves that they do have to really trust the therapist to disclose what has haunted them for years. What do you think? Do you have a therapist you trust? Are you too embarrassed to be honest? If you are not comfortable with your therapist, shop around until you find one that you do feel you can tell all you need to, to move forward. Some people feel like they have had a bad experience and give up. Please do not. Therapists know that clients need to have a connection and it is nothing personal. What is important is what the client needs. There have been studies which has depicted that the relationship the client has with his or her therapist is even more important than the knowledge the therapist has. I will be continuing with this line of thought next week from my psychology notes. After next week, I will begin my theology notes and continue this way in alternate weeks. I do hope you enjoy reading this. Feel free if you ever want to comment. Thank you.

Religion vs Culture - Pastoral

In North America we have freedoms that we often take for granted. Sometimes we may feel that the entire world operates as we do but then we get glimpses of reality through violence experienced, terrorism etc….that we can experience life’s altering moments or get a perspective from the suffering of others. Recently I watched a documentary ‘Women” by Gloria Steinman who depicted the femicide of women in El Salvador. It seemed incredulous to me that so many women are being tortured to death by men. Even more so that it is considered the norm. Men in powerful positions often get no penalty whatsoever for beating or even killing their wives or girlfriends. Where does all this anger come from? Gangs enjoy torturing women because as one ex gang member put it, they scream more. He considered it art. We had two Canadians college students (not university) who considered torturing an animal to death as art too. Torture is not art. In my opinion, it is pure evil. One man interviewed in El Salvador said that he beats his wife but added that she likes it because she stays with him. He has thought of killing her at times and perhaps will. It is such a problem that they have special police units to investigate these killings/torture. One Policewoman in charge of her unit stated that she has arrested policemen as well for such crimes. The female reporter is shown entering a bar full of men only to interview and get their perspectives. They speak of growing up having their dads beat up their mothers. When I went to school there would always be a protest from a student regarding our notion of countries we do not think are civilized. We are educated to see life from the perspective of others. We can send women to space and elect them to parliament while women in other countries are being whipped for being raped, not allowed to drive cars and forced into prostitution. How civilized pray tell, is all this? I am glad that my country opens the doors to the repressed. Religion is becoming a dirty word in some circles and Spirituality is the objective to replace religion. How many people who are abusive are religious? How many children grow up to hate religion because it has been distorted for them? How many men go to Church or equivalent and then beat up or rape their wives? How many religious people beat up their children, humiliate them and then say that they should honour the parent because it is God’s wish? The name of God has been utilized so often in the torture, killings and terrorism of others. Is this God? Is this religion? Is this madness, needing an excuse? None of this has to do with God. Because the God I know is not evil. Evil is called something else, and it is certainly not God. Changing to a lighter subject, I was reading a booklet, “Echo from Africa and other continents” May/Jun 2016 pgs 20-25, by Fr S. Arockia Doss, a Catholic priest who works in Tamil, India. He has organized a project to help Dalit children through education. Fr Doss reports knowing the status of Dalit women and girls in India from personal experience. His own father had taken his three sisters out of school, who today he describes are worn and aged before their time from work. Women and girls are molested within the homes of high-caste landlords. Nearly 90% of his parish consists of Dalits. Nothing has changed. These females are still prevented from going to school; forced to work as domestic servants. It is no surprise that Fr Doss explains that the poverty is mostly due to exploitation and injustice (sounds familiar?). Dalit women work under harsh circumstances while being abused both at work and home. They experience “filthy verbal abuse, sexual abuse, and unimaginable violence.” Many are forced into prostitution. I find it interesting that Fr Doss clarifies that Dalit Christians have 300 years of experience with Christianity yet do not even know what their faith is. Many Christians there do not view Dalits as people. Fr Doss states that only education can save them from an endless cycle of slavery and he is doing everything in his power to provide this education. Stipends from the church collections pays for teachers. These female children are now altar servers and readers and of course this bothers the high-caste Christians of the parish. “Even though there are only 16 high-caste families in the parish, they have much influence and are trying to impede the changes I have made.” Fr Doss is looking for funds to continue educating females. “When a Dalit girl is educated, their entire family benefits. Our shoulders have carried the weight of slavery for 3,000 years. Education was always beyond our reach. We have been forced to carry out menial jobs in unhygienic conditions, making cleanliness a basic issue. Traditionally we are not allowed to enter temples or places of worship. As unclean beings, we are forbidden to enter holy places according to the Hindu religion.” There is a photo depicted of two rows of children. It demonstrates that the Dalit children are not allowed to eat while the children of castes eat. They must sit separately and eat later from specially marked plates. I find this shameful. That they call themselves Christians is even more so. Fr Doss writes, “I know what poverty is. I have been hungry and felt the sting of insults. I have known the shame of not being able to afford even the small amount needed for school fees. I have known the yearning for new clothes and the embarrassment of wearing tattered rags when every one else was clothed in new outfits during festival times. There are many thorns and pains in my heart and mind from my childhood - a small replica of Jesus’ passion, as viewed through the eyes of a child.” Why not say a prayer for the work that Fr Doss is trying to do regardless of the obstacles against him? In what way can any of us help the wrong doings in the world? How can we contribute to stop the exploitation of those who cannot protect themselves? What do you think?

Don’t Tell Mummy a book by Toni Maguire - review

I knew by the photo and title what this book was about. I had just speed read six books from a popular author and I couldn’t finish any of them. I wanted to read for fun but blood and guts and psychotic killers are not my style. Yes, I can write about psychotic killers and I am, but no blood or guts and I don’t think I swear like a trucker either. I guess I have to write my own to enjoy them. I don’t know why I cannot seem to get really interested in a fluff book these last few months. I do enjoy reading for fun and clearing my head up a bit. I did not choose (Don’t Tell Mummy) this book. It chose me. It is not the type of book I would buy because I do deal with child abuse, at what I thought for the longest time was epidemic. My research on pedophiles about four years ago would have to be updated. However, as I was walking home one day, I noticed this book pop up at me from someone’s grass. The grass had an array of spiritualist organic type psydo quasi therapy books which I briefly scanned and discarded while standing. I certainly didn’t need to read more about pedophiles but the haunting eyes of the little girl on the picture would not allow me to move on, and so I picked it up, brought it home and read it in two sittings. I am now in my office where I will add this book to my book shelf. When I think that a client will need to read this, I shall loan this one out. I don’t normally loan out books anymore because too many times I have not have them returned (I am referring to previous fellow students and colleagues). So, now I may recommend a book instead, but this book is special because I could not simply walk by without taking it home. The book is Toni Maguire’s autobiography. I like bios and have written my own. What I normally do with adults who have been sexually abused as children is provide them with the opportunity to report who molested them. If they are children I have an obligation by law to report it. However, adults who have been molested as children grow up, remember and all too often are tormented by their visions. Pedophiles unfortunately know exactly how to find their preys but all too often children are molested by their own family members. I remember years ago taking a three day sexual assault course and the initial speaker was a brave soul who spoke of being raped by her father and brother. When she reported it to the Police, she was abandoned by her entire family including her mother. Did the mother know? That is a question many ask and many know the answer. Though in my practice I let the clients know they can report it, it is also about giving them the power to make their own decisions. They can take their power back. Pedophiles do not consider themselves pedophiles. I know of therapists who will not provide therapy for pedophiles. Several months ago I read an article in one of my therapy magazines about the difficulty for pedophiles to seek help. Who do they go to for help? We really do not know what is hidden within those who walk among us and therefore we have a responsibility to protect our children. Pedophiles are fathers, mothers, other family members and among authority figures. I believe that pedophiles seek occupations where they hold trusting positions with access to children. If you are a parent and your child tells you that he or she has been sexually abused please report it, even if it is your mate. It has to stop. Why I am writing about this book today is because the author at one point is upset because the psychiatrist asks if she enjoyed the sex. The response was denial and the writer was quite upset about it. However, and this is why I am writing about his today, fear causes orgasms. You can be absolutely terrified and this will cause arousal. Also, children are sexual beings. We are all sexual beings. And this is important because the pedophile knows that. Therefore, if you have been victimized and you have felt some pleasure, please believe it is still a crime and it is not your fault. That the pedophile kept asking this child if she liked it and forced a positive response on her, this is what pedophiles do. They try and make the child think it is his or her fault. That since there may be pleasure,it is ok. It is not under any condition. It is the adult and only the adult at fault. There is no reason or justification for any adult to molest a child in any form. What did bother me about this book is how the entire community when this was exposed blamed the child. These witch hunt responses of blaming the surviver has always annoyed me - how cruel. What I also recommend for adults of child abuse is to write their story while in therapy. Writing may trigger too much for the adult child to deal with. A therapist can help guide the person not to overwhelm themselves and to help them understand the process. So, I do recommend this book. And if you have been molested, you do not have to carry it all by yourself. Tell someone and if they do nothing about it tell someone else who can recognize it for what it is. What do you think?