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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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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Recently it has become fashionable to criticize the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) as psychiatry is about to switch over from DSM-4 to DSM-5. Certainly the DSM has its limitations, but these are the limitations of…
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One of the continuing mysteries about human existence is the topic of “why we dream”. Dreaming is not unique to humans. Mammals and birds probably dream as well, though we can’t be certain what they dream about. The same is…
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TAGGED IN: dream analysis, dream revision, dream revision therapy, dreaming, Freud, PTSD, REM, Why We Dream
In an earlier blog post (Two New Treatments for PTSD) I indicated that dream revision is a new treatment for PTSD. What I meant by this is that it is not currently recognized as a firstline method for treating PTSD, and should be. …
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Bret was a San Diego County police officer, referred to me by the Sheriff’s Department for treatment of PTSD. He had shot and killed a bank robber at close range. When Bret arrived on the scene, he found the bank robber with a gun in his…
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Andre had been a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War. He was fifty six years old when I first met him at the San Diego VA Medical Center in March, 1994. He was African American, divorced, with four children and ten grandchildren. Navy Seal…
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Severe life-threatening traumatic events can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a syndrome that includes recurrent nightmares, vivid flashbacks, avoidant behaviors, memory deficits, feelings of detachment, excessive…
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During the period from 1991 to 1993 I was a Research Fellow in psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). It was the time of the first Gulf War. Vietnam Veterans who had been hiding out in their homes or in the woods for…
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