Psychology for intelligent people

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Explore a classic children's book: Where the Wild Things Are [or the Uncounscious]

Philip Glassborow explores the origins of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are. Contributors include Maurice Sendak's British editor Judy Taylor, his long-time friend playwright Tony Kushner, children's literature expert Leonard Marcus and the children of Little Milton Primary School in Oxfordshire. The programme features readings by Henry Goodman and extensive use of Jewish Klezmer music. ...more in the BBC Radio 4 -
Watch above two video documents on the famous children's book, and below watch 'A Selection', a collaborative work of Maurice Sendak and Pilobolus. "A Selection" is a dance that depicts the brutality of Hitler's Holocaust as it affected those, especially the children, who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. The title of the work comes from the process where camp arrivals are separated to work or to die - as shown in Part 2. Some are "selected" to work while others are stripped of everything they have and sent to the gas chambers.

A perverse father admits 24 years of abduction and more years of incest

A 73-year-old Austrian man confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a windowless cellar for 24 years and fathering her seven children. Josef Fritzl was believed to have lured his daughter Elisabeth into the basement of the family's home in Amstetten, north-west Austria, on August 24 1984. He allegedly drugged and handcuffed her before locking her in the cellar. Franz Pölzer, the head of the criminal investigations unit in the province of Lower Austria, said Fritzl had admitted abduction and incest. "He has now said that he locked up his daughter for 24 years and that he alone fathered her seven children and that he locked them up in the cellar," he told Reuters. Fritzl is expected to appear in court later today. Earlier, a police spokesman said 42-year-old Elisabeth was "psychologically extremely disturbed", but that her version of events was "completely believable". She claimed her father had abused her since she was 11. "In her own words, she was continuously abused by her father," the spokesman said. She said she had borne seven children by Fritzl, including twins, one of whom died after only three days in 1996. He removed the body from the cellar and burnt it. Police said many questions remained to be answered in the case, which is reminiscent of that of the Austrian girl Natascha Kampusch, who was abducted, aged 10, on her way to school in 1998 and locked in a windowless cell before escaping in August 2006.
...The drama began to unravel last weekend when Elisabeth's 19-year-old daughter, Kerstin, who lived in the cellar, was left at a hospital with a life-threatening illness. A search for Elisabeth increased in urgency as Kerstin's condition worsened. The plight of the mother and children was discovered on Saturday night when Elisabeth and her father appeared together at the hospital. They were taken to the nearby police station, where he was arrested for sexually abusing his daughter and holding her captive. Kerstin is said to be in a critical condition, suffering from an unknown illness, in the intensive care unit of Krems hospital. Pölzer said Elisabeth "gave the impression of being in an extremely disturbed psychological state" and was "in a bad way physically". She had agreed to speak to police only after being assured that she and her children would never again have contact with her father. ...more in The Guardian - BBC - The Times - The Telegraph - The Independent - France 24

What Psychoanalysis observed long ago is now confirmed by research: Antidepressant drugs - used by 40 million believers who rather take a drug than examine their life - don't work

They are among the biggest-selling drugs of all time, the "happiness pills" that supposedly lift the moods of those who suffer depression and are taken by millions of people in the UK every year. But one of the largest studies of modern antidepressant drugs has found that they have no clinically significant effect. In other words, they don't work. The finding will send shock waves through the medical profession and patients and raises serious questions about the regulation of the multinational pharmaceutical industry, which was accused yesterday of withholding data on the drugs. It also came as Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, announced that 3,600 therapists are to be trained during the next three years to provide nationwide access through the GP service to "talking treatments" for depression, instead of drugs, in a £170m scheme. The popularity of the new generation of antidepressants, which include the best known brands Prozac and Seroxat, soared after they were launched in the late 1980s, heavily promoted by drug companies as safer and leading to fewer side-effects than the older tricyclic antidepressants. The publication in 1994 of Listening to Prozac by Peter Kramer, in which he suggested anyone with too little "joy juice" might give themselves a dose of the "mood brightener" Prozac , lifted sales into the stratosphere. In the UK, an estimated 3.5 million people take the drugs, collectively known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in any one year and 29 million prescriptions were issued in 2004. Prozac, the best known of the SSRIs made by Eli Lilly, was the world's fastest-selling drug until it was overtaken by Viagra. ...more in The Independent - The Times - The Guardian - The Telegraph

People in public office should undergo a psychoanalysis first to avoid dictators in the making, perverse and mad endangering another's life :: 'Abuse was anything from rape to torture.'

Abuse and torture to minors in public care happened every night Victims call for house to be demolished as they reveal full scale of horror at Haut de la Garenne. Former residents at a Jersey care home where police are searching for the remains of up to six children described yesterday how they were repeatedly drugged, raped and abused while supposedly under the protection of the institution's staff. Testimonies, including one from a leading local trade unionist, painted a horrifying picture of life inside Haut de la Garenne, where more than 1,000 children were housed in the decades before it was closed down. Peter Hannaford, 59, who lived at the home until he was 12, called for the building to be demolished. Speaking for the first time in public about his ordeal, he described his childhood there as "hell". "The abuse was anything from rape to torture. It was men and women who abused us. It happened every night and it happened to everyone. I was scared to go to bed. You were threatened with punishment if you said anything, which could have been a whip or anything," the union official said. A mother-of-two, identified only as Pamela, 49, said she spent two years inside the home in the early 1970s. She alleged that the weakest children were selected by members of staff during drunken parties and plied with cigarettes and alcohol. "The things that happened there are indescribable – the most cruel, sadistic and evil acts you could think of," she said. Children who fell foul of the authorities were stripped naked and locked in a 10ft "punishment room", she claimed. "I was sent there if I slipped up in any way – not eating all of my dinner, looking at one of the staff in a funny way, basically any excuse they could find," she said. "When I fought back a female staff member came in and gave me huge dose of valium that knocked me out, and sexually assaulted me. I was always being drugged." Some 150 people have contacted police since the discovery of human bones at the care home on Saturday. It also emerged that the notorious paedophile Edward Paisnell, known as the Beast of Jersey, visited Haut de la Garenne during the 1960s. ...more in The Independent

Private detective use soars as spouses spy on partners

The number of suspicious partners hiring private investigators to set up honey traps for their spouses surged last year as a string of celebrity divorce cases shone an uncomfortable spotlight on a business that usually remains shrouded in secrecy. The number of lawyers with clients using private detectives to confirm infidelity was up almost a third on last year, according to research published today by Grant Thornton, with more and more people following in the footsteps of high-profile figures who have turned to "private eyes"for help in establishing whether to end their marriage. Matthew Mellon, the American banking heir, was cleared of wrong-doing last year after he admitted hiring Active Investigation Services (AIS) to spy on his former wife Tamara Mellon, the founder of Jimmy Choo shoes, before their divorce in 2005. And Ingrid Tarrant, the ex-wife of Who Wants to be A Millionaire? presenter Chris was granted a divorce after private detectives confirmed he had had a 10-year affair with Fiona McKechnie, the deputy head of a primary school. But solicitors said yesterday that hiring the services of a private investigator was no longer the preserve of the suspicious super-rich. More than two-thirds of leading matrimony lawyers reported they had at least one client last year who paid detectives to spy on a partner – up from 49 per cent of lawyers the previous year and only 19 per cent in 2005. Of those clients, 64 per cent were women. ...more in The Independent

Facebook can ruin your life. And so can MySpace, Bebo...

People will post just about anything on social networking sites. And the information can be used against them. David Randall and Victoria Richards report. In the judicial backwater of a New Jersey federal court, a case is being heard that nominally affects two families but should also make millions of Britons think twice about something they do every day: put highly personal information on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo. An American insurance company, in defending its refusal to pay out a claim, is seeking to call in evidence personal online postings, including the contents of any MySpace or Facebook pages the litigants may have, to see if their eating disorders might have "emotional causes". And the case is far from a lone one. Suddenly, those saucy pictures and intimate confessions on social networking sites can be taken down and used in evidence against you in ways never dreamed of. In the US, a sex assault victim seeking compensation faces the prospect of her MySpace and Facebook pages being produced in court. In Texas, a driver whose car was involved in a fatal accident found his MySpace postings ("I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunkaholic") part of the prosecution's case. From Los Angeles to Lowestoft, thousands of social network site users have lost their jobs – or failed to clinch new ones – because of their pages' contents. Police, colleges and schools are monitoring MySpace and Facebook pages for what they deem to be "inappropriate" content. Online security holes and users' naivety are combining to cause privacy breaches and identity thefts. And what all this, and more, adds up to is this: online social networking can seriously damage your life. ...more in The Independent

Heath Ledger, Oscar nominated star of Brokeback Mountain, dies aged 28. Did he suffer from a phobia instead of treating it?

Heath Ledger, the actor nominated for an Oscar in 2006 for his depiction of a brooding gay cowboy, found dead after suspected overdose of drugs. He was 28. He was discovered in his bedroom in the apartment in the SoHo neighbourhood of Manhattan at 3.30pm by a housekeeper and a masseuse who he had called for an appointment. They found him unconscious on the floor and called emergency services when he failed to respond. ...New York magazine opined that "great joy can be taken in witnessing the small-miracle performances of Ledger (so eloquent in his mute despair)". ...It was during the filming of Brokeback Mountain that Ledger began a relationship with the actor Michelle Williams. They set up home together in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda Rose, who is now two. At the time, Ledger spoke of the happiness they found in Brooklyn, away from the glare of Manhattan media attention. "I walk my laundry down to the laundromat, I get my groceries and carry them back; photographers don't live out there, and local people don't care," he said. But the happiness did not last for long. The couple split up last year and Ledger moved back to Manhattan. He rarely alluded to his private life, but there was clearly a troubled streak. He regularly complained about the attention of paparazzi, and he was hypercritical of his own acting performances. In November he told the New York Times he was not proud of his role in I'm Not There, Todd Haynes's film in which Ledger plays one of six versions of Bob Dylan. He said: "I feel the same way about everything I do. The day I say, 'It's good' is the day I should start doing something else." The interviewer found Ledger complaining he had been unable to sleep. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going," Ledger said. He confided to the reporter that he took a prescription sleeping pill and, when that failed, took another. The actor had been travelling between New York and London where he was filming, as recently as last weekend, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus directed by Terry Gilliam. He was also scheduled to appear this year as the Joker in the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight. [Some weeks ago he was saw in the New York metro with his 2 years daughter, Matilda, so unclean that the strong smell make passers by avoid him. Many said that the clothes he was wearing have never been washed, reported Spanish news paper.] ...more in The Guardian - The Independent - The Times - The Telegraph - The Washington Post

London executive claims to had battered new born daughter to death to 'drive out devil'

A senior City executive and “totally devoted father” killed his two-year-old daughter by smashing her head against the floor because he believed she had been taken over by a “malign and satanic entity”, a court heard today. Alberto Izaga, 36, the most senior executive in London for the insurance giant Swiss Re, thought he was on a mission and that there was a struggle between good and evil and the devil, the Old Bailey was told. Mr Izaga, who had described his daughter Yanire as the “most precious treasure on earth” was rambling for several hours in June last year, after waking up in the early hours of the morning, about how executives were part of a sect and were taking over the financial world and an American film called Bug, about a man who had bugs beneath his skin. With his terrified wife trying to ring for help, Mr Izaga grabbed his daughter from the nursery he had prepared and shook her before swinging her against the wooden floor. ...Jonathan Rees, for the prosecution, said that Mr Izaga was still rambling after 6am and told his wife that he had not slept for three days. She asked him to stop and go to bed, which he did but was unable to sleep and began crying and hitting his pillow before getting up and shouting. When his wife asked him not to wake their daughter he went into her nursery, picked her up and began to shake her as his wife begged him to stop. He did and they sat together on the couch, the baby lying on her father's chest, but he began to shout about the film Bug again. His wife tried to leave the flat to get help but he blocked her path. He then assaulted his daughter. She did not die straight away, but suffered multiple skull fractures and brain damage and was declared dead two days later. ...more in The Times - The Guardian

Twins parted at birth went on to meet, marry – then find the truth

Twins who were separated at birth married each other without knowing that they were brother and sister, a peer has claimed. The couple were adopted as babies by different families, and neither was told that they had a twin. They met, fell in love and got married before discovering that they were blood relatives. Lord Alton of Liverpool, who was told about the case by a High Court judge, told the House of Lords that the British couple were then granted an annulment at a special hearing at the High Court in London. Judges in the Family Division ruled that the marriage had never been valid. “For them it was a terrible tragedy,” said Lord Alton, who declined yesterday to name the judge who had told him about the case and said that he had no further details. Experts said that the trauma both of being separated and of discovering that they were twins in such circumstances would have had serious psychological consequences for the pair. Lord Alton, who opposes parts of The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill now being debated in the Lords, argued that the twins’ experience demonstrated the need to strengthen a child’s right to know the identity of his or her biological parents. He called on the Government to “think again” about the Bill, which contains no requirement for the birth certificates of children conceived by egg or sperm donations to include this fact, despite calls from some MPs and peers for it to do so. Yesterday Lord Alton said that the case of these twins “outlines the importance of knowing your identity, knowing who you are and your genealogy. This is to prevent incestuous relationships, but also for reasons of genetics and disease prevention. “I think there needs to be more clarity in public records. A birth certificate is a historical document, it is not about your social circumstances.” ...more in The Times - The Guardian -

Refugee from Kosovo weds woman who fostered him as a teenager

It could hardly have been a quieter wedding, with just two witnesses, one bridesmaid and a dog. But that was the way Julia Gregg, 34, wanted it when she married 21-year-old Krenar Lleshi - seven years after she and her ex-husband took him into their home as a foster son. The couple looked after the teenage Kosovan after he was smuggled into Britain in the back of a lorry. Miss Gregg grew increasingly attached to Krenar as he battled to be allowed to stay in the country. After she and her husband Steve Crandon, 38, split up, she began a love affair with Krenar when he turned 19 and a year later they had a child together. The couple married on Christmas Eve at their local church, St Anne's in Nantyglo, South Wales, with their one-year- old daughter, Hattie, as bridesmaid, and their dog, Cupe (the name is Albanian for "little girl") as a guest. Yesterday the new Mrs Lleshi said: "There were a lot of shocked faces when we said we were getting married. I know how much people have gossiped about us and we wanted it to be a very special, very private occasion. "I didn't even tell my sisters. When they found out they were shocked. I wanted to keep it as something between me and Krenar." ...more in This is London

Man charged with Rachel Nickell murder 15 years ago

A man was charged today with the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in July 1992, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Robert Napper, 41, will appear at City of Westminster magistrates' court on December 4. The move follows a review of the notorious murder of the former model and lifeguard while she walked with her young son on July 15 1992. Scotland Yard said: "Robert Napper, 41, has today been charged with the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common on July 15 1992. Article continues "He will appear before City of Westminster magistrates' court on December 4 at 10.30am." Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted in a frenzied attack that led to one of the largest murder inquiries ever seen in the UK. Her two-year-old son, Alex, was found clinging to her, covered in his mother's blood. Hilary Bradfield, of the Crown Prosecution Service's serious casework unit, said the charge against Napper followed a "painstaking" review of the murder inquiry, which "considered all aspects of the case in detail". She said: "This week we have reached a decision that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and have authorised the police to charge [Robert Napper]."
A total of 32 men were questioned in connection with the murder. Police eventually targeted an unemployed man from Roehampton, south London, called Colin Stagg who was known to walk his dog on the common. While there was no forensic evidence linking Stagg to the scene, attention soon focused exclusively on him and police attempted to obtain evidence against him through a complex sting operation involving an undercover policewoman, acting on the sicophantic advice of leader of the British Psychological Society well know for their anti-freudian militancy and pro-behaviourist militancy like that of the American Psychological Society who condon participation of their members in tortures practices by the Pentagon.
The case against Stagg was thrown out when it came to the Old Bailey in 1994 on the grounds that police had used a "honeytrap" plot to encourage him to confess. Police subsequently re-opened their inquiry. Last year John Reid, then home secretary, agreed that Stagg should receive compensation. Legal experts say he could get £250,000-£500,000. Scotland Yard launched a new inquiry into Nickell's murder after the collapse of Stagg's trial. ...more in The Guardian - and in Democracy Now

Psychologist author Mary Pipher returns American Psychological Association award to protest over condoning of tortures

She said: "I think that the APA has long been a clan," said Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist and author of "Reviving Ophelia" among several other books. She returned her Presidential Citation award from the America Psychological Association in protest over the group's policy on military and CIA interrogations. "The top leadership, the people on the council have been there for decades. It's a very ingrown group of people and I think we probably need some new leadership in APA."
We congratulate our colleague Pipher. The similar illness of nepotism and pro behaviorist militancy, anti-Freudian stance, discredits the British Psychological Society.
Click on the screen below to watch Pipher interwieved in Democracy Now by journalist Juan Gonzalez

We play the second part of our conversation with renowned psychologist and author Mary Pipher. She gained headlines last week when she returned her Presidential Citation award from the America Psychological Association in protest over the group's policy on military and CIA interrogations. At its annual convention just over a week ago, the APA's policymaking council voted overwhelmingly to reject a measure that would have banned its members from participating in interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and other US detention centers. Mary Pipher rose to national acclaim with the publication of her book, "Reviving Ophelia" which remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 150 weeks. She has written several other books, her latest is titled "Writing to Change the World." I began by asking Mary Pipher why she decided to return her award from the APA. ...more in Democracy Now

Leaked Guantanamo Manual Reveals Torture Was Official Army Policy in which Psychologists Play a role

Just over a week ago, a major operating manual for the US military's prison camp at Guantanamo Bay was leaked and posted on the internet. Among other disclosures, it reveals that isolation and sensory deprivation of prisoners was official Army policy. We take a look at how this affects the debate within the American Psychological Association and the participation of its members in eupheumenical called "interrogations" which proper name is tortures.
The 238-page manual titled "Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta," is dated March 27, 2003, and signed by Army Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was then the commander of the prison. The document shows that the military had an official policy of denying some prisoners any access to independent monitors of the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, something the military has repeatedly denied. Another disclosure is the use of isolation and sensory deprivation techniques as a means of "preparing" detainees. It says incoming prisoners are to be held in near-isolation for the first two weeks to foster dependence on interrogators and "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process." This disclosure has strong relevance to the debate within the American Psychological Association, which continues to condone psychologists' work on interrogations at Guantanamo and CIA black sites. Its counterparts, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have both banned their members from participating in interrogations. ...more in Democracy Now - and in the web WikiLeaks where you can download a copy of the USA Manual for Tortures /
Also click on the screens above to watch a documental on a British lawyer representing victims of torture held in Guantanamo, and click on the screens below to watch a documental by Amy Goodman on participation of psychologists in torture with the Pentagon.

18 years old student used YouTube to predict his school massacre in Finnland

A teenaged gunman killed his headmistress and seven fellow pupils at a school in southern Finland today, hours after posting a chilling video on the YouTube website predicting the massacre. After running rampage through the Jokela high school the gunman shot himself in the head, but survived and was taken to a hospital in an “extremely critical condition”, a police spokesman said. He was named in unconfirmed internet reports as Pekka-Eric Auvinen, 18, himself a pupil at the school. The school shooting is thought to be unprecedented in Finland, where violent incidents are rare despite a high rate of gun ownership. In his YouTube postings and videos, the young man appeared to have more in common with the authors of some of the United States' worst massacres - including this year's Virginia Tech shootings. The video - which has been deleted - shows a still image of a school that appears to be the Jokela school. The photograph fragments to reveal a red-tinted picture of a man pointing a gun at the camera. ...more in The Guardian - The Times - The Telegraph - The Independent

Hypocritical Oath: "Psychologists"(anti-Freudians) who Torture

"First, do no harm. This tenet of medicine applies equally to psychologists, yet they are increasingly implicated in abusive interrogations, dare we say torture, at U.S. military detention facilities like Guantanamo [concentration camp]. While the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association both have passed resolutions prohibiting members from participating in interrogations, the American Psychological Association refuses to, despite the outrage of many of its members. Now, with the declassification of a report by the Pentagon’s inspector general detailing psychologists’ role in military interrogations, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services announced it will investigate. Dr. Leonard Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, says such an “investigation into the development of torture techniques by the United States” would be “very significant. ... It should get into ... the use of psychologists in the development of the techniques..." ...read the full article by Amy Goodman clicking here

And watch her informative shows on this significant matter in Democracy Now
Please also visit the web of Physicians for Human Rights and support the campaign against USA torture.

Spanish tycoon forced into mental health treatment after he assasinated his 2 years old daughter banging her head:

A millionaire insurance executive was sectioned under the Mental Health Act yesterday after his two-year-old daughter was found with severe head injuries at the family's apartment in central London. Alberto Izaga, 36, was arrested on Sunday morning after neighbours heard screams coming from the luxury £1m Thames-side apartment and called police. Mr Izaga's daughter, who is believed to be called Yanire, is in a critical condition in St Thomas' Hospital, central London. Mr Izaga, who is head of Life and Health Products at the insurance giant Swiss Re, has been examined by psychologists and was detained. ...more in The Guardian - Daily Express - The Telegraph - The Independent - The Times

Mon fils à Moi [My Son, mine]

A new version of the total power of Yocasta over her child, in particular when the father don´t care and society cares not for the Law.
``Mon fils a moi,'' Fougeron's first feature film, tells the story of a preadolescent boy who is a prisoner of his mother's love. He is controlled by her and subject to cruel psychological bullying. The film relates his desperate struggle to break free.
One of two winning films at the San Sebastian international film festival, Martial Fougeron's Mon Fils à Moi, was booed by critics at the weekend when it was announced that it had won the top accolade. Several journalists at the Spanish speaking world's most important film festival shouted "no, no" while others made thumbs down gestures to show their preference for the Iranian film Half Moon, which shared the Golden Shell for best film..."Half Moon,'' by the Kurdish Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi and "Mon fils a moi'' ("My Son'') by France's Martial Fougeron each won Golden Shell awards for best film at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
Watch the trailer clicking on the screen.

Socratic Dialogue Gives Way to PowerPoint ...and too mediocrity:

For at least a century at many teaching and community hospitals, properly dressed doctors in ties and white coats have assembled each week, usually in an auditorium, for a master class in the art and science of medicine from the best clinicians. Before us was often a patient who sat in a chair or rested on a gurney and two doctors, one in training and the other a professor or senior doctor at the hospital. In a Socratic dialogue, they often led the audience in a step-by-step deciphering of the ailment. But in recent years, grand rounds have become didactic lectures focusing on technical aspects of the newest biomedical research. Patients have disappeared. ...more in The New York Times.

Scientific progress on Resurrection

Academician Miroslav Radman, together with his research associate Ksenija Zahradka, presented their most recent scientific discovery on the Mechanism of DNA repair in Deinococcus radiodurans. The presentation was accompanied by a lecture on "The reassembly of shattered chromosomes in the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans" on October 7th 2006, at the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, Croatia. ...read the article clicking here.

NHS computer system breaks down 110 times in four months:

The problems, affecting dozens of hospitals across England, were serious enough to be logged by NHS managers as "major incidents", according to a report in Computer Weekly magazine. Some involved programs that allow doctors to view x-rays; others affected the online appointments registers that hold details of patient bookings and planned treatments. ...more in The Guardian

Mechanisms of mental formation and submission to the "authority",

which apply to every human being:

A dark mystery: A month after her escape, disturbing details about Natascha Kampusch’s life before her kidnap have emerged. Stefanie Marsh reports from Vienna ...read the note in The Times

Mother of Austrian kidnap survivor 'knew abductor' : New doubt has been cast on the sensational story of Natascha Kampusch, the Austrian teenager held underground for eight years, after a key witness claimed that the kidnapped girl's mother knew the abductor and that she was convinced there was a "connection" between them. ... more in The Independent

Kidnap girl tells of eight-year torment : Wearing jeans and a purple shirt and sporting a long scarf tied around her head, the images reveal a poised, thoughtful young woman, looking relaxed and smiling. But the pictures mask the torment that Fraulein Kampusch reveals she endured during her eight years as a prisoner. In her first interviews since her freedom, the teenager told how she thought only of escape during her entire ordeal, once even trying to jump out of her captor’s car. She also reveals how she dreamt about decapitating Priklopil. "I always felt like a poor chicken in a hen house. You saw on TV how small my cell was - it was a place to despair." ... more in The Times - The Guardian

[photos: Natasha researched by Austria from 1998, hole where she lived 8 years hidden, his kidnapper Wolfgang Priklopil]
The Austrian teenager held in an underground cell for more than eight years insisted Monday she didn't miss out on much in captivity and was even spared some temptations and torments of adolescence, such as smoking, drinking and dealing with "bad friends.": On her fifth full day of freedom, 18-year-old Natascha Kampusch broke her silence in a statement that appeared to lend credence to the theory she may have suffered from "Stockholm Syndrome," where victims cope by identifying with their captors. Natasha described the man who enslaved her as "a part of my life," adding "that's why I also mourn for him in a certain way." Kampusch also said she refused to comply with Priklopil's requests to call him "master." "He was not my master. I was just as strong," she said in the statement, read to reporters by a psychologist. ...more in The Washington Post - The New York Times - The Guardian - The Independent

Kidnapper led his victim to believe that her parents had refused to pay a ransom for her ... more in The Independent - The Guardian

Kidnapped girl kept diary during her eight-year ordeal: The neighbour who found Fräulein Kampusch in her garden said: “She was just suddenly standing in front of my kitchen window, panicking, white in the face and shaking.” After being reunited, her father said that his daughter had asked him: “Daddy, do you still have my toy car?” Herr Koch told her that he had kept it, along with all her dolls. ... more in The Times -

Kidnapper's friend says he met 'cheerful' Natascha, judging thus for the appearence of "the couple" he saw as most people does, ignoring Plato and Freud teachings: ...more in The Times - The New York Times - The Washigton Post


Full text of the public letter by Natasha: ... read it in The Times

Kidnap girl sues to seize abductor's home: A few neighbors also believed what she made "a happy couple" with her kidnapper, for instance Mr Jantschek, 66, who said: "I saw the young lady in the garden quite often over the past year. They also drove off together in his car, and every time she waved at us in a friendly way." He also said that when asked, Priklopil claimed the young woman was a "Yugoslav aide" that he had "borrowed" from a colleague to do some house work for him. Jantschek said: "We could not have known that it was the kidnapped Natascha Kampusch. When I asked him [Priklopil] whether she was his new girlfriend, he only said 'I have borrowed her from a work colleague ... more in The Times - The Washington Post

Bernardo Bertolucci tribute to Sigmund Freud and to J L Borges

Bernardo Bertolucci's interviewed by John Tusa from BBC Radio 3: ... What sort of films do you think you'd be making now if you had not gone into analysis in your late twenties?
Bertolucci : It's a very difficult question because it doesn't involve only the movies that maybe would have been completely different, it involves also my life. My life would have been probably something very, very different. I went first to a Freudian psychoanalyst in 1969, just two or three months before shooting The Spider's Stratagem. I didn't go really because I wanted to make bigger, wider, my perspectives or my horizon. I went because I felt in need of a kind of very intimate dialogue, to be able to speak with somebody about things I wasn't able to speak with anybody else. And that was really the beginning of a great discovery, the discovery that psychoanalysis was like adding a new lens, a new objective to my camera. And maybe, the therapeutical effect of psychoanalysis on me came also through my movies. I was so excited as a neophyte about this discovery of the world of Sigmund Freud for the first six, seven years, I was kind of going around as a PR of psychoanalysis. ... listen and read the complete interview in the BBC - Radio 3

Berlin celebrates Sigmund Freud

Next 6th May 2006 is celebrated the 150th anniversary of Sigmund Freud's birthday. The Institute of Cinema, the Jewish Museum of Berlin, the Friends of the German Film Archives in the Arsenal Cinema and the Psychoanalytical associations will remember with Exhibitions, series of Films and Lectures the genius of the father of Psychoanalysis, who also worked in Berlin.

Freud's Sculpture at The Henry Moore Museum, Leeds, UK

Etching of Sigmund Freud at his Desk by
Max Pollak 1914, from the Freud Museum, London.
On the eve of the 150th anniversary of Sigmund Freud’s birth, the Henry Moore Institute in association with the Freud Museum presents a unique opportunity to explore Freud’s relationship with sculpture. Until now, the sculptures and statuettes that he displayed on his desk have rarely been examined, but this exhibition highlights their meaning both individually and as an ensemble. ... read more clicking here.

Beckham reveals his battle with obsessive disorder

"I've got this obsessive compulsive disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs. I'll put my Pepsi cans in the fridge and if there's one too many then I'll put it in another cupboard somewhere. "I'll go into a hotel room and before I can relax, I have to move all the leaflets and all the books and put them in a drawer. Everything has to be perfect." Asked if he wanted to stop his obsessive behaviour, he said: "I would like to. I've tried and can't stop." Beckham admitted he was also addicted to having tattoos, partly because he enjoys the pain. Beckham is not the first footballer to admit to suffering from OCD, which is estimated to affect more than two million people at some point in their lives. ... more in The Independent

Why people go missing of their own?

Every day 600 people disappear in Britain. On the day the government agreed to fund the country's leading organisation for missing persons, the Guardian journalists investigates the phenomenon of those who leave and those they leave behind ... read the results here.

Millons of couples live in similar terms of 'Brokeback' marriages

One woman in her 50's, who asked to be identified only as Trillian, out of concern for her husband's privacy, said that she and her husband formally divorced after she discovered his secret sexual life seven years ago, but they quickly decided to stay together. She has a satisfying monogamous sexual relationship with him, while he also has sex with men. "He tried to go back in the closet, but the more research I did on the subject, the more I realized this is an integral part of the person," she said. "You can't just turn it off like a light switch. My husband is the man of my dreams, and I could not face the rest of my life with the man of my dreams being miserable and guilt ridden over being gay." ... read the article by Katy Butler in The New York Times
Also read "Freud and the liberation of sexual desire", by Peter Tatchell

The sycophantic reductionism

Freud observed that Psychoanalysis may not survive in the Anglo-American culture, too keen to reducing concepts into practical norms in spite they lose thus their "soul" for the sake of practicality. For example the "analyst" psychiatrist of Marilyn Monroe ordered her to tape record "free associations" so he may listen them later, as if it were a lonely and perverse game... when Monroe died, the police investigator had met with the actress' psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson. During the interview Greenson played the Monroe tapes. Now the investigator decided to make them public ... more in Los Angeles Times

Watch and listen the interview with Arthur Miller about Marilyn Monroe

The boy who could not find a way of life and blow him up to death in an orgy of carnage

Hasib Hussain and his three friends, Shahzad Tanweer, 22, Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, and a man yet to be formally identified, have been revealed as the bombers responsible for last Thursday's atrocities ... more in The Independent and in The Guardian

The chronic illness of British Health Service (NHS): a feudal and bureaucratic system

New NHS referral system cost £3m for 63 bookings ... read the article by Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor of The Independent

The intellectual and moral corruption of the actual National Health Service
...Like propaganda in a totalitarian state, the various procedures to which doctors are subjected in the NHS are not intended to inform, much less to persuade or to change anyone, but to humiliate them, to let them know who is boss and that Big Brother is watching them ... more in The Spectator

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