Blog

Dream Therapy for PTSD

July 7, 2015 dr_bruce_dow

This website and blog were created three years ago, in 2012, to promote a book manuscript that I was trying to get published as a book.  The idea was to attract people via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin,YouTube) who could serve…

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Agency

November 21, 2014 agency5-1

In a recent New York Times editorial, David Brooks writes about agency, and how the great British writer, George Eliot (1818-1880) acquired it as she matured in her life.  Her novel, Middlemarch, is recognized as one of the finest in the…

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Memory Reconsolidation and PTSD

June 2, 2014 erase3

PTSD has been called a disorder of sleep, which it certainly seems to be, disrupting both sleep onset and sleep maintenance.  A recently published flow diagram for PTSD treatment indicates trazodone (for inducing sleep) and prazosin (for…

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Dreaming and the Self

April 21, 2014 identity1

What is the “self”?  It is our sense of who (and what) we are, both our personality and our actual physical body.  Our sense of self develops gradually and continuously through life, from birth to death.  We can watch it develop in…

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Dream Revision Therapy and Lucid Dreaming

April 8, 2014 lucid dreaming2

I recently finished Robert Waggoner’s book, Lucid Dreaming (2009), a fascinating read.  Here I highlight similarities and differences between dream revision therapy and lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the state of being conscious…

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Magical Thinking

March 25, 2014 magic2

What is magical thinking?  It involves the notion that the laws of science can sometimes be overcome with sufficient mental or spiritual force.  In such instances a miracle is said to occur; religious people may claim that there was…

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Pain, Anxiety, Addiction

September 18, 2013 pain & stress

I recently attended a scientific meeting in Boston on Acute Pain Management.  Doctors in Massachusetts and many other states are required, for renewal of their license, to spend some hours of continuing medical education (CME) on a topic…

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Memory: Consolidation, Extinction, Reconsolidation

August 8, 2013 Memory Consolidation, Extinction, Reconsolidation

Background Classical conditioning is a form of memory.  The “classic” example of classical conditioning derives from the experimental studies of Ivan Pavlov with dogs.  The sound of a bell, announcing the impending arrival of…

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How to Change Your PTSD Habits

July 15, 2013 Change Your PTSD Habits

The caudate nucleus, buried beneath the cerebral cortex, is involved in habit formation.  Evidence from brain imaging studies suggests that new habits may be established during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, when our most vivid and…

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How to Change Your PTSD Nightmare

July 2, 2013 Radio

Michele Rosenthal is the lively and engaging hostess on a radio call-in show, “Changing Direction”, which airs on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2PM EST.  I have now appeared on her show three times in the past few months (February 6, May…

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