psychotherapy:

Seeking to broaden the customer base of the popular drug, Pfizer announced the launch of a $40 million “Zoloft For Everything” advertising campaign Monday.

Zoloft is most commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders, but it would be ridiculous to limit such a multi-functional drug to these few uses,” Pfizer spokesman Jon Pugh said. “We feel doctors need to stop asking their patients if anything is wrong and start asking if anything could be more right.”

Continued Pugh: “How many millions of people out there are suffering under the strain of a deadline at work or pre-date jitters, but don’t realize there’s a drug that could provide relief? Zoloft isn’t just for severe anxiety or depression. Got the Monday blues? Kids driving you nuts? Let Zoloft help. Zoloft.”

makingofmovies:

Trailer for Michael Moore’s upcoming documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, in theaters October 2, 2009 

psychotherapy:

A man’s spit may indicate what kind of father and husband he is. In polygamous societies, men with high levels of testosterone in their saliva are more likely to take several wives and give their children less attention, compared to those with less of the sex hormone coursing through their bodies.

The new study of rural Senegalese villagers adds to previous work underscoring testosterone’s critical role in a mating and parenting.

High testosterone levels have been linked to increased sexual activity, infidelity and marital conflict. However, after men become fathers, their bodies typically pump out less of the hormone.

“This is good for us, so we can adapt to social challenges very quickly,” says Alexandra Alvergne, an anthropologist at the University of Montpellier, France, and the University of Sheffield, UK, who led the new study.

“I think the evidence is piling up” that testosterone affects mating and parenting in humans, says Peter Ellison, an anthropologist at Harvard University.

Genetics plays some role in determining how much testosterone men produce, but culture, fatherhood and other factors tinker with its levels over a lifetime.

“If you have a young child – a young baby – that you’re at times responsible for, it would be really good to lower your testosterone. Not only are you less likely to forget the child and pursue some other mating opportunity but your temper may be lowered,” Ellison says.

While it isn’t clear exactly how fatherhood tempers testosterone levels, Ellison and others believe that paternal behaviour feeds into the endocrine system to crank down its natural levels.

In cultures where men aren’t expected to be outstanding fathers and are constantly on the lookout for potential mates, testosterone levels tend to stay high, Ellison says. “It’s not that polygynists somehow have different genes that make them polygynists.”

Journal reference: Hormones and Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.07.013

psychotherapy:

Can money buy happiness? Since the invention of money, or nearly enough, people have been telling one another that it can’t. Philosophers and gurus, holy books and self-help manuals have all warned of the futility of equating material gain with true well-being.

Modern research generally backs them up. Psychologists and economists have found that while money does matter to your sense of happiness, it doesn’t matter that much. Beyond the point at which people have enough to comfortably feed, clothe, and house themselves, having more money - even a lot more money - makes them only a little bit happier. So there’s quantitative proof for the preachings of St. Francis and the wisdom of the Buddha. Bad news for hard-charging bankers; good news for struggling musicians.

But starting to emerge now is a different answer to that age-old question. A few researchers are looking again at whether happiness can be bought, and they are discovering that quite possibly it can - it’s just that some strategies are a lot better than others. Taking a friend to lunch, it turns out, makes us happier than buying a new outfit. Splurging on a vacation makes us happy in a way that splurging on a car may not.

“Just because money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t mean money cannot buy happiness,” says Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. “People just might be using it wrong.”

Dunn and others are beginning to offer an intriguing explanation for the poor wealth-to-happiness exchange rate: The problem isn’t money, it’s us. For deep-seated psychological reasons, when it comes to spending money, we tend to value goods over experiences, ourselves over others, things over people. When it comes to happiness, none of these decisions are right: The spending that make us happy, it turns out, is often spending where the money vanishes and leaves something ineffable in its place…

niven:

placesthatpull:

From Twain to Kerouac to Bryson, writers have found inspiration in hitting the road and traveling the United States

it seems i have a fall reading list.

 i like :)