Dr. Gary Bell's Absurd Psychology

Regression therapy is an approach to treatment that focuses on resolving significant past events believed to be interfering with a person's present mental and emotional wellness. Therapists who practice this approach believe people seeking treatment for phobias, depression, intimacy issues, and a range of other concerns can see improvement in their state of mind by revisiting and reliving the earl...

Human beings need to trust. Trust allays anxiety, helps lift depression, and makes it possible to consistently invest interest and enjoyment in one another. There could be no civilization, enduring health, or mental wellness without trust. The most ordinary interpersonal, commercial, medical, and legal interactions would be impossible without some degree of trust. In contrast, distrust is fraught...

A miscarriage is a real loss that can affect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. But those who haven't experienced a miscarriage may not understand how deeply it is affecting you because people rarely talk openly about pregnancy loss. Often people don't view pregnancy loss as significant because the pregnancy was short. But the duration of a pregnancy does not determine the bond that you...

Stress generally refers to two things: the psychological perception of pressure, on the one hand, and the body's response to it, on the other, which involves multiple systems, from metabolism to muscles to memory. Some stress is necessary for all living systems; it is the means by which they encounter and respond to the challenges and uncertainties of existence. The perception of danger sets off a...

We all have to face it at some point; an event of such enormity that it can make everything else in our lives seem insignificant: death, the end of our existence, our departure from this world. We live in a culture that denies death. We're taught that death is something we should shy away from, and try to forget about. If we start contemplating our own mortality – so this traditional wisdom goes –...

One of the fundamental laws of social psychology is the reciprocity principle. When we pay back what we receive from others in social situations, we are engaging in reciprocity. If I do you a favor, there's a reasonable probability that you'll do me a favor in return. Social-emotional reciprocity is the back and forth interaction that takes place in communication. We take a social approach to have...

There are two types of people, those who contribute and those who detract. You must learn that the best way to build your career and your life is through your own achievements, not by attacking the achievements of others. People will always remember what type of person you are, and they will trust or distrust you accordingly. Seldom have I heard words that were truer or more genuinely wise. People...

A person who steals things that he already owns, can easily afford, or does not want or need can be baffling. Mental health professionals may think that his stealing can be explained by a psychological disorder. The habitual thief may appear to suffer from a compulsion ("kleptomania"). He may be seen as resorting to stealing as a way to "feel better" while coping with depressionor adverse circumst...

Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on how people grow and change over the course of a lifetime. Those who specialize in this field are not just concerned with the physical changes that occur as people grow; they also look at the social, emotional, and cognitive development that occurs throughout life. Change is inevitable. As humans, we constantly grow throughout our...

From eccentric and introverted to boisterous and bold, the human personality is a complex and colorful thing. Personality refers to a person's distinctive patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. It derives from a mix of innate dispositions and inclinations along with environmental factors and experiences. Although personality can change over a lifetime, one's core personality traits tend to r...

If you're like most people, you figure you'll get married once—maybe twice—in your entire life. However, if you're a serial monogamist (a person who engages in repeated serious relationships, one after the other), you might marry three, four, five or more times during your life. But what drives someone to become a serial monogamist? Do they begin with psychological issues, or do they simply end up...

When we think of people being dramatic – or in this case, overly dramatic - we think of them making much of their appearance before others.  They enjoy feeling and displaying emotions.  They have a taste for tension-filled scenes.  They want others to know how they are interpreting a situation and how it is affecting them.  The only thing that matters, or so it seems, is what is happening now.  Da...

Although many people use the two words guilt and shame interchangeably, from a psychological perspective, they actually refer to different experiences. Guilt and shame sometimes go hand in hand; the same action may give rise to feelings of both shame and guilt, where the former reflects how we feel about ourselves and the latter involves an awareness that our actions have injured someone else. In...

Unfortunately, we're often taught that being an outsider is a "bad" thing, and no wonder — biologically we are made to stay within the safe confines of our species' groups. But there comes a moment in life where "playing by the book" is seen to be a miserable and unfulfilling absurdity. Just look at all those people who followed the rules, got a good career, wife, children, solid salary, socially-...

Rabbi Abraham Heschel stated that "Racism is man's gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." Racism is a system of power and privilege based on perceived race and/or ethnicity that defines one group as dominant to and more deserving than all other groups. In this system, there is a dominant group (e.g., whites) and there are subordinate groups, including Native Americ...

Wisdom is one of those qualities that is difficult to define—because it encompasses so much—but which people generally recognize when they encounter it. And it is encountered most obviously in the realm of decision-making. Psychologists tend to agree that wisdom involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life as wel...

As cities across America grapple with people living on the streets, homelessness is becoming impossible to ignore. More than half a million Americans are homeless each night, including a staggering 2.5 million children who are homeless in any given year. Children are homeless in every city, county, and state. Tune in and lets examine what is driving all of this mess!

The defining characteristic of asexuality is never feeling sexually attracted to anyone, but asexuals vary in other ways. Romantic attraction, for example, is distinct from sexual attraction, and asexuals vary in the degree to which they experience it. Some asexuals engage in sexual relations, probably because they have a romantic partner who wishes to do so. Asexuals also differ in the frequency...

Some of us are in the habit of using the same negative words over and over again out of habit. The problem is that the more we hear, read, or speak a word or phrase, the more power it has over us. This is because the brain uses repetition to learn, searching for patterns and consistency as a way to make sense of the world around us. Only after being burned a few times can we understand that fire i...

Eating disorders are complex psycho-physiologic challenges that require much more than simple determination and a strong will to conquer. One of every fifty children in the United States will deal with them at some point in their lives. And while eating disorders are generally seen as a form of mental illness, here at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating we see them as much more than that. W...

The Enneagram is a powerful tool for personal and collective transformation. Stemming from the Greek words ennea (nine) and grammos (a written symbol), the nine-pointed Enneagram symbol represents nine distinct strategies for relating to the self, others and the world. Each Enneagram type has a different pattern of thinking, feeling and acting that arises from a deeper inner motivation or worldvie...

In the case of depersonalization, the individual may feel detached from his or her entire being (e.g., "I am no one," "I have no self"). He or she may also feel subjectively detached from aspects of the self, including feelings (e.g., hypoemotionality: "I know I have feelings but I don't feel them"), thoughts (e.g., "My thoughts don't feel like my own," "head filled with cotton"), whole body or bo...

While humans seek solace in conspiracy theories, however, they rarely find it. For one thing, conspiratorial thinking can incite individuals to behave in a way that increases their sense of powerlessness, making them feel even worse. The negative and alienated beliefs can also promote dangerous behaviors in some. Tune in and learn all about conspiracy theory and how to rec agonize and deal with it...

While persuasion is a science, it's also an art. If a person pushes too hard, he will risk being aggressive. If he nudges too lightly, he will get nowhere. If she grips too loudly, she's just a jerk. Many things can influence the decisions of others. For example, people pay attention when an attractive salesperson is talking. Plus, people perk up if that individual uses powerful words such as prog...

Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group of well-intentioned people make irrational or non-optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conformor the believe that dissent is impossible. The problematic or premature consensus that is characteristic of groupthink may be fueled by a particular agenda—or it may be due to group members valuing harmony and coherence above critical thought. Tune i...