Markham's Behavioral Health

Money For Nothing, the book

Edward Ugel has written a light breezy memoir entitled, Money For Nothing: One Man's Journey Through The Dark Side Of Lottery Millions. Ugel describes his career as a lump sum salesman to lottery winners who rather than wait for the annual annuity check decide to sell their win to a financial investment company for a lump sum.

Ugel describes how the lump sum salespeople prey on the weaknesses and character defects of winners to make their sales and collect thousands in commissions. Turns out Ugel has a gambling problem himself and so part of what makes him a successful salesman in this bussiness is that "it takes one to know one."

The thing that makes this book palatable is Ugel's self denigrating stance, his humor, and his humility. He is aware of his problems and he knows that at once they are his greatest assett and his greatest deficit. He makes no bones about it and seems honest in a way that is refreshing and kept me reading to the end.

The book is disjointed and written like a high school term paper, but enjoyable nonetheless and gives the reader an inside glimpse of the underbelly of state lotteries, the people who play them, and the people who prey on the unfortunate winners.

On Chesil Beach, the book

The year is 1962 and Edward 23, marries Florence, 22 and both virgins go to Chesil Beach on the Dorset Coast for their honeymoon. Edward is horney as hell and Florence is scared out of her wits, and though they love each other ostensibly, their first attempt at sex is a disaster which sets off a round of recriminations that dooms their once hopeful marriage.

Ian McEwan's novella is a masterful description of human emotion, interpersonal dysfunction, and tragedy entirely of our own making. It would be a wonderful book to use in a course on Marriage and Family Therapy.

I recommend this book, Ian McEwan's, On Chesil Beach

Addiction to attention which turns into promiscuous sex

On June 11, 2008, Deborah Harper, President of Psychjourney interviewed Kerry Cohen, the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity about her book, her life, and her work as a psychotherapist.

Ms. Cohen talks about her addiction to attention which she obtained by projecting herself as a sex object for numerous boys. As Ms. Cohen says it wasn't about the sex as much as the hope in getting their attention that they would make her whole.

This interview lasts about 30 minutes and is well worth listening to by any psychotherapist working with young women, and/or parents of young women, or young women themselves who crave attention and use their sex appeal to obtain that attention.

I am reminded of a client of mine, a 17 year old young woman,who told me "I'd rather be used than be alone."

I recommend this interview. You can go to the psychjourney web site by clicking on the link below.

[[Psychjourney]].

Jon Stewart asks McClellan how our politicians lie to us

Jon Stewart does a great job interviewing Scott McClellan about his book , What Happened. It is interesting to hear the administration's representatives say things like "this isn't the Scott we knew". Jon asks McClellan insightful questions about how the administration developed the strategy of obfuscation which they employed to lie to the American people.

If you are interested in the immoral behavior of our polticians as they go about their activities in pursuing their own agenda which is contradictory to the interests of the nation, and the world,  Jon's interview is well worth watching.

Stupid Americans prefer comfort to truth, myth to facts. This amounts to denial at a national level.

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived, and dishonest, but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."

John F. Kennedy

With this epigram, Rick Shenkman opens the first chapter of his book, which I wanted to write, entitled, Just How Stupid Are We?

Shenkman writes, "Even after 9/11, when fresh thinking was needed most, we neglected as a society to confront the harsh truths about the limits of the public's wisdom. Busy spreading democracy around the world,we refused to reflect bravely on the defects of our own. Instead of admitting our flaws, we settled, somewhat defensively, on the myth that we a good and great people with noble aims." p. 12

Of course this is highly questionable. We had just elected two convicted drunk drivers to the highest offices in the land, President and Vice-President. That alone should give any thinking person pause in considering the wisdom and intelligence of the American people. We not only elected them, we re-elected them rejecting a decorated war hero for two leaders who avoided and dodged military service.

As Shenkman points out, when the American voters are faced with the truth or the myth they vote for the myth that gay marriage is bad, and that abortion is ruining our nation even when the bulk of the information from a public health perspective is the opposite. However, facing up the truths which fly in the face of fiercely held myths  is not something the American public has proved itself good at, and disaster has occured and continues to develop as most Americans aren't smart enough to understand how they have been had by their politicians and the corporate media.

It is easy to blame the policticans for fear mongering, lying, manipulating, spinning, and being bought off by lobbyists, and it is easy to blame the corporate media for skewing the news in their desired directions and not asking the tough questions and digging for the real facts behind the public relations spin, but few people have questioned the myth of the wisdom of the American people. The fact of the matter is that the American public is stupid. We get what we deserve. Perhaps working together we can look at our myths and start questioning "authority" so that we can come to a functional and healthy understanding of our national and international situation.

The American peple are in denial as surely as the alcoholic and drug addict are in denial about the nature of their disease. When first confronted, the alcoholic says, "Screw you. I don't have a problem." But as more negative consequences occur, the alcoholic can't avoid and deny any more. Reality starts to set in as the alcoholic hits bottom. America is hitting bottom. The myth that we are fighting pre-emptive, immoral wars like Viet Nam and Iraq for freedom and democracy around the world because we are morally superior while we loose democratic freedoms at home, and working people become poorer as the rich become richer, is becoming contaminated.

As Shenkman points out, it is not the lies that harm the most, but the belief in the underlying myths which make the lies necessary to maintain order and compliance of a people who otherwise might object to the policies of those in power.

Video with Rick Shenkman lasts about 6:42

Dishwasher, the book

Dishwasher: One Man's Quest To Wash Dishes In All 50 States, by Pete Jordon is a fun and quick read. The delight in this book is the author's self - denigrating no holds barred pursuit of being the biggest and best slacker in the country. He operationalizes this chosen life style  of slacker by glorying in washing dishes. He considers himself the "dish master".

Upon survey, dishwashing was rated the 735th least desirable and lowliest of all occupations in the United States out of 740, and yet Pete loves it and sings its praises.  He gets free food from what he calls "the bus tub buffet". He sleeps in between rushes. He quits on a moments notice and finds jobs from signs posted in windows.

This would be a good beach book this summer. Pete is just folksy enough to be likable, but nobody you would want your daughter to marry.

Scott McClellan, former Press Secretary to Bush, finally confesses and tells the truth.

Scott McClellan is a huge disgrace for shilling for the President and the Bush administration. He will now make millions off his book saying that the Bush administration was spewing propaganda rather than being straight with the American people. This is nothing new, but it does validate those who have been saying this for some time. Talking Points Memo TV gives highlights of many of Scott's press conferences. It is this kind of mystification that makes Americans crazy. The video lasts 9:30 and is worth watching if you are interested in this kind of stuff.

Adult Children of Parent Alienation Syndrome

On May 24, 2007 Deborah Harper on Psychjourney interviewed Dr. Amy J. L. Baker about her book, Adult Alienation Syndome: Breaking The Ties That Bind.

Dr. Richard Garner coined the phrase Parent Alienation Syndrome back in the late 70s and it has been a controversial contruct ever sense. As they say, "Seeing is believing" and over the years I have been involved with families where parent alienation syndome is present and in my experience this is a very real thing which is often misunderstood and made worse by our Child Protective System, our Family court system, and our school systems.

The podcast lasts about 50 minutes and can be listened to on line or downloaded. I highly recommend it if you are interested in this topic. You can access it by clicking on the link below.

Link: [[Psychjourney]].

Armageddon in Retrospect, the book

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut was published posthumously and is delightful. It is a collection of never before published stories about World War II with the exception of an address written by Kurt and delivered by his son, Mark, in Indianapolis in April of 2007.

For Vonnegut fans this book is a treasure and will be enjoyed immensely.

A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut summarized by The Resident

The Resident has a 6 1/2 minute video on Kurt Vonnegut's book, A Man Without A Country. It is well worth watching.