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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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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At first glance, truth and fiction appear to be opposites, but if we think of Fiction, including novels, plays, poems, then truth and (great) fiction may actually be synonyms. Certainly there is truth in Tolstoy’s War and Peace,…
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Nightmares (during sleep) and flashbacks (during waking) are the hallmarks of PTSD. Some people with PTSD are more troubled by nightmares, others by flashbacks. Many people with PTSD are troubled by both. Daytime “triggers” can…
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There are two current treatments for PTSD that involve dreams. One treatment is dream revision, the focus of this website. The other treatment is the anti-hypertensive medication, prazosin, which has been shown to block nightmares (as…
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There are various claims, both scientific and fictional, about “parallel universes”. A parallel universe, of which there may be many, operates through different laws and has different natural phenomena than our usual universe,…
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People with PTSD suffer from emotional dysregulation. They have trouble controlling their emotions. A Vietnam veteran patient of mine with combat-related PTSD once told me “we have no feelings, only emotions”. His comment makes…
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Our everyday lives are filled with sensory information from the outside world and from our own motor behaviors. We can’t possibly remember everything we experience. Our brain helps us select new information worthy of remembering. Such…
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