“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
There are those who grow up feeling that they are not as good at anything as they should be. The reasons for having such low self-esteem are familiar to everyone. They add up to having had the experience, repeatedly, of being told one way or another by important...
A dating conundrum Recently, someone wrote in to my blog to ask if I thought there was any hope for his relationship with a woman who had stabbed him thirteen times. (She had previously stabbed him on other occasions.) I told him that I did not think so. As one might...
Why some people do not marry. I remember talking to a woman who came to psychotherapy primarily with a history of depression, but who very soon began to speak about her wish to settle down and marry. She was about forty years old. As far as I could tell, she did not...
We had such a great first date. Or— why doesn’t she call me back? These are questions I hear frequently, and sometimes repeatedly from the same patient talking about different “great” first dates. I am not likely to know the answer. It is hard enough to figure out why...
Not everyone who is gay is possessed. Gordon Klingenschmitt, a Colorado state representative, became the latest in a long line of politicians who claim that homosexuals are possessed by the devil. He was provoked by a commercial for jewelry that depicted two...
And in the genital election. A hidden agenda? Imagine you are in the fifth grade—no, make that the third grade. I’m sure this is hard for most of you to do, since you probably have been doing lots of different things since the third grade, and your mind, I’m sure, is...
Exactly what do you mean by that? In trying to understand people, psychiatrists are in a privileged position. Patients speak to us in a setting of confidentiality. They know their secrets are safe with us. And they expect us to be sympathetic. They have no reason to...
No More Sex until… The kids go off to college. Parents don’t like to have sex in front of their children. I take that as a given. Maybe it was different in prehistoric times. Maybe back then when a committed couple (I assume there was no marriage ceremony in those...
“Disgusting” Use of the Ladies’ Room Maybe Donald Trump knows a secret. I take note that Donald Trump recently took exception to Hillary Clinton using the ladies room during the Democratic debate. He spoke rhetorically to the crowd in front of him claiming not to know...
If you are the sort of person who is inclined to worry. Nowadays young men and women are likely to settle down at a later age than they used to. For that reason it is rare—and probably not particularly desirable—that someone you have become seriously attached to has...
Potential problems In the defense of the second amendment, there are a growing number of states that have passed statutes making it lawful to carry weapons in church, in bars, at work, and on college campuses. In fact, there is growing support for the right to carry...
Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder The Abstinent-Desire Index (The ADI) “Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder” is a well-known aphorism that sums up the effect of sexual frequency on sexual appetite—and vice-versa. The effect is not linear. There is...