BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

from THE NEW AGENDA Harry Reid Discovers Domestic Violence by Amy Siskind After hearing barely the utterance of a women’s issue out of Harry Reid’s mouth for as long as I can recall, imagine my surprise yesterday to hear Senator Reid speaking out on domestic violence. What you might ask gave Senator Reid this epiphany on this escalating crisis in our country? While violence generally in our country has been flat to down for the better part of a decade, violence against women continues to soar. And of course, the untold crisis of teen dating violence continues to froth unnoticed by politicians like Senator Reid. Here’s some recent stats put out by MADE (Moms and Dads for Education to Stop Teen Dating Abuse ), or which TNA is a national partner: 1 in 3 teens who have been in a dating relationship have experienced sexual abuse, physical abuse, or threats of physical harm. 1 in 2 of all 14 – 24 year olds has been the target of some form of digital abuse. Nearly 1 in 4 teens in a ...

by Thomas J. Schumacher, Psy.D., R-CSW Most all of you have had to contend with control freaks. These are those people who insist on having their way in all interactions with you. They wish to set the agenda and decide what it is you will do and when you will do it. You know who they are – they have a driving need to run the show and call the shots. Lurking within the fabric of the conversation is the clear threat that if you do not accede to their needs and demands, they will be unhappy. Certainly, it’s natural to want to be in control of your life. But when you have to be in control of the people around you as well, when you literally can’t rest until you get your way … you have a personality disorder. While it’s not a diagnostic category found in the DSM IV (the therapist’s bible for diagnostic purposes) an exaggerated emphasis on control is part of a cluster of behaviors that can be labeled as compulsive generally characterized by perfectionism, orderliness, workaholic tendencies, ...

by Robert Krulwich and Jad Abumrad LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW - CLICK HERE We all lie — once a day or so, according to most studies. But usually we tell little lies, like "your new haircut looks great!" And most of us can control when we lie or what we lie about. But some people lie repeatedly and compulsively, about things both big and small. In 2005, a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry provided the first evidence of structural differences in the brains of people with a history of persistent lying. The study was led by Yaling Yang, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Southern California, and Adrian Raine, an expert on antisocial disorders who is now at University of Pennsylvania. They expected to see some kind of deficit in the brains of these liars, Yang says. But surprisingly, the liars in their study actually had a surplus — specifically, they had more connections in the part of their brains responsible for complex thinking. Finding Liars...

Here are some rules that will make things easier for you to interact with a narcissist. (The aim at this point is not to provide comfortable guidelines. Interacting with a narcissist may not be comfortable, but it doesn't always have to be a total loss.) 1. Demand little. Expect little. You will find your role is one of support, acknowledgement, and recognition. The narcissist may see you as a kind of gopher or aide-de-camp. If that is acceptable to you, you should have little difficulty. 2. Be willing to listen a lot and listen carefully. 3. Find ways to provide positive recognition frequently. It is important to check the narcissist's reaction to be sure you have understood what positive recognition he or she wants at the moment. If you are on the wrong track, that fact will probably be made abundantly clear to you fairly quickly. 4. If it is at all possible to do so, be honest and sincere in your acknowledgement, praise, and recognition. Identify and note any and all of the ...

Obama is, in my opinion, a sociopath. As Dems grow closer to the convention I become more convinced and sure of my armchair diagnosis. Yes, I know it's pretty strong words to accuse someone of being pathological. I was raised by one and have been in involved with a couple -- so I have had up close and personal experience. And I stand by my opinion. He's a verbal abuser, he abused Hillary, he abuses all of us with his flip flopping and his Sheeple are doing the same to any blogger on Blogspot who tries to tell the truth about this lying idiot. One of my new, favorite bloggers - Uppity Woman - said this on her blog about SNOBama: If You Have Any Remaining Doubt That Obama Is Morally Bankrupt… by Uppity Woman …this should cure you. Just as so many of us predicted, now that it can’t hurt him and he has successfully gamed the system and insulted everything this country’s democracy stands for, [ ] Barack Obama wants every Florida and Michigan delegate counted. If this isn’t a...

IS SOMEONE TRYING TO ETHICALLY OR UNETHICALLY INFLUENCE YOU? CHECK OUT THE INFLUENCE CONTINUUM The following Influence Continuum shows you the method and modes of various influence techniques as a continuum. You will find the various descending techniques for that section. At the top of the Influence Continuum you will find choice respecting tactics that are educative and therapeutic and have their emphasis on the message. In the middle you will find compliance gaining techniques that are persuasive and manipulative and have their emphasis on gaining a response. At the bottom of the continuum you will find destructive controlling techniques designed to isolate you from normal social supports and reality testing. As your review the continuum try to remember people or organizations (friends, bosses, teachers, family, corporate tactics, etc.) you liked and disliked that have been applied to you fromthe various sections of the influence continuum. This is a powerful quick tool to help you...

FAREWELL TO A LEGENDARY ABUSER This post may seem like one of the coldest cruelest things I have ever written. And I ask God's forgiveness for it. But I am going to stick to my own truth and feel the need to write about it. While I am sorry for Ike Turner's friends & family in his passing, I am not sorry to hear he's gone. He was, in my humble opinion, a malignant narcissist. Talented, brilliant but evil, selfish and cruel. I read "I, Tina " when it first came out. I loved Tina Turner. I had a roommate my first 5 years living in NYC who was as into music as I was (and still am). He had me listen to some very early Ike Turner. It was memorizing and I can only imagine its effect on the people who heard it when it first came out. It was different. It was rock and roll in the raw. And Tina had a voice like no one else. She was raw, sexual energy on stage with a kick-a** voice. But as an abuse victim, still in the throes of a marriage where I was yet u...

RELIGION AND SEX The Immoral Majority: Finding sexual ethics in the godless masses - Don Lattin Our nation's self-anointed arbiters of public morality love to point their fingers at San Francisco and "the '60s." And many of us have gotten all too comfortable in this role as the hedonists and heretics of an otherwise God- fearing nation. OK, we're not perfect, and neither were those wild times, but can't the pundits of piety find another decade to bash and a new city to trash? According to some evangelical observers, the youth of America came here in the '60s with flowers in their hair and lust in their heart. Infected with the sins of the flesh and the wisdom of the East, they went forth across the land to spawn the first "post-Christian generation." But don't worry. True believers across the Bible Belt are praying for the poor lost souls of all those "unchurched'' twentysomethings and thirtysomethings born in the late '60s ...