Tracking how psychology has evolved throughout the centuries helps us better understand psychology today. That’s why every month we dig around to find the most interesting articles and videos on the renowned — and sometimes notorious — people and places that have led to where we are right now.

In last month’s roundup, we talked about psychology’s controversial figures and tall tales. This month is no exception. There are links about infamous psychologists John Watson and John Philippe Rushton. There are also links to psychology’s beginnings with early concepts of mental disease and the functionalist school.

“Notes on a Scandal”

American psychologist John B. Watson was the father of behaviorism – and no stranger to controversy. If you’ve ever taken an intro to psychology class, you probably know Watson for two other things: his notorious experiment with “Little Albert” and a white rat, and his affair with his graduate student assistant Rosalie Rayner.

However, if you took an intro course in the 1970s, ’80s or even ’90s, you might’ve learned another fun fact: Watson was conducting sex research with Rayner’s help.

According to this piece in APA’s Monitor on Psychology, the story was published in at least 200 textbooks from 1974-1994. But was this fact or fiction? Monitor editor Jamie Chamberlin sets the record straight amid the racy rumors.

“Whole Body Madness”

Author and professor Richard Noll writes about a mental disease psychiatrists and neurologists believed was the result of a whole-body breakdown in this Psychiatric Times piece. The brain, it was believed, along with other organs, were heavily involved. And, it was also believed that this particular disease could be easily, reliably and objectively diagnosed with a specific physical examination.

(By the way, I talk more about this disease and Noll’s book here.)

John Philippe Rushton

John Philippe Rushton, who died Oct. 2, 2012, was a controversial figure in psychology. It was his work on race and intelligence, crime and penis size that sparked uproar and even protests. One of my favorite blogs, Advances in the History of Psychology, features a brief bio along with a video of a debate between Rushton and geneticist David Suzuki. (They also include links to a few other pieces.

Asylums Turned Apartments

Another favorite blog, Mind Hacks, has an interesting post about a former British psychiatric hospital which has been converted into luxury apartments. (This isn’t the first time former asylums have become pricey homes.) They link to a fascinating website that features the history of Claybury Hospital, along with other “lost hospitals of London.”

“Toward a New School Of Their Own”

Inspired by Charles Darwin, functionalism or functional psychology aimed to study mental and behavioral processes. Psychologists were interested in the functions of consciousness, rather than its structure (like structuralism, another psychology movement).

According to psychologist James R. Angell, structuralists essentially wanted to know “what is consciousness,” while functionalists wanted to know “what is consciousness for?” as C. James Goodwin writes in A History of Modern Psychology.

Christopher D. Green, a professor of psychology at York University, created a great video series all about this school of thought, which started in the 19th century and influenced behaviorism. Check out video one and two.

What interesting pieces have you read lately about the history of psychology?
Let us know in the comments!

This month we’ve got pieces on everything from infamous psychology cases to a radical anti-psychiatry experiment to life in a high-security psychiatric hospital to the passing of one of psychiatry’s greatest critics.

“Psychology’s Tall Tales”

If you’ve ever taken an intro psychology course, you know about Phineas Gage and Kitty Genovese. Both individuals – and their compelling stories – have been used to illustrate some of psychology’s most recognized theories.

After an iron rod tore through his skill, Phineas Gage supposedly became a different man – an uninhibited, surly alcoholic who couldn’t hold down a job. His case provided convincing evidence that our frontal lobes play a pivotal role in personality and judgment.

Kitty Genovese’s murder was used to substantiate the bystander effect. This phenomenon occurs when the presence of other people prevents them from stepping in and helping in an emergency situation.

But were these cases truly solid evidence? In this piece in APA’s gradPSYCH magazine, writer Beryl Lieff Benderly takes a look at what really happened in these infamous stories. I bet this wasn’t covered in your psychology textbook.

“William James and the Sixth Sense”

You might know that psychologist and philosopher William James wasn’t a fan of lab work. But you might not know that he actually conducted extensive laboratory research into dizziness. Katharine S. Milar, Ph.D, explores James’s work on the inner ear’s role in dizziness in this piece in APA’s Monitor on Psychology.

An Experiment in Anti-Psychiatry

In 1965 psychiatrist R.D. Laing conducted an experiment where both patients with psychosis and schizophrenia and psychiatrists lived together at Kingsley Hall, a former community center in London. The radical experiment lasted five years. Instead of prescribing medication, Laing wanted patients to heal their early traumas and live out their symptoms.

As the blog Mind Hacks notes, “…the place was more chaos than freedom, and the residence became a stop-in for hippies, lost souls and acid dealers.” The Observer has an interesting article about the experiment. Writer Sean O’ Hagan also interviewed photographer Dominic Harris, who tracked down 13 individuals who lived at Kingsley Hall. The article includes some of their stories.

Growing Up in a High-Security Hospital

Novelist Patrick McGrath grew up in one of Britain’s high-security psychiatric hospitals: Broadmoor. His dad was the last medical superintendent of Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum. In this article in Intelligent Life, McGrath recounts his childhood and how his father handled his position along with some of the infamous patients of Broadmoor.

“Despite our proximity to a great many very disturbed men and women, I found Broadmoor an idyllic place to grow up,” he writes. On Mind Hacks, psychologist and blogger Vaughan Bell very briefly shares his thoughts on Broadmoor’s reputation and his own work at a similar psychiatric hospital.

Thomas Szasz

In this piece on Psych Central, our founder and editor-in-chief, John Grohol, PsyD, talks about the important contributions of Thomas Szasz, M.D.. Szasz died in September 2012 at the age of 92. Here’s a snippet: “While many associate Szasz with the anti-psychiatry movement, that’s a label he never was comfortable with. It also over-simplifies his complex and nuanced views about mental illness as one of the most vocal critics of psychiatry.”

This month I’m sharing everything from resources on shell shock and how it was perceived during World War I, to the legitimate diagnosis of Don Juan syndrome, to American psychologist Joseph Jastrow.

Let’s dig in…

The Making of War Neuroses

In this post, Mind Hacks, one of my favorite websites, links to a piece in the Journal of the History of Medicine about a 1917 film featuring soldiers affected by “shell shock.” (The entire footage is on YouTube.) Maj. Arthur Hurst, who’s described as a curious figure, filmed these soldiers for one year as they were treated at a UK hospital. Interestingly, some of the before shots were reenacted, and according to the article, Hurst also “openly used deception as a therapeutic measure.”

Shell Shocked

Professor Edgar Jones, Ph.D, also discusses shell shock in June’s issue of APA’s Monitor on Psychology. Specifically, he shares the story of psychologist Charles S. Myers and how he persuaded the British army to take shell shock seriously. Myers’s principles are still followed today.

Hypersexual Disorder: An Encounter with Don Juan in the Archives

Greg Eghigian, Ph.D, talks about Don Juan syndrome, a diagnosis given to various types of male hypersexuality, in this Psychiatric Times post. He also includes an excerpt from a 19th century physician and discusses the different causal theories over time. Here’s a peek at the excerpt:

He is seized with a violent and continued satyriasis, and with such salacity, that he pursued beyond measure his wife, his daughters, and all those females who came in his way. This man, formerly so pious, so modest, fell into the most erotic delirium, and abandoned himself without measure to proposals and acts the most indecent. This state increased for about three months, during which time his mind and strength became weakened; when, following a violent passion, which was occasioned by the refusal of his wife, lassato viro et satiate, he fell into a convulsion . . .4

Today in the History of Psychology

This interesting website from Central Washington University lets you enter any date of the year to see what happened on that day in the history of psychology. (I could do this for hours!)

For instance, here’s what happened on July 4th:

1841 — Wilhelm T. Preyer was born. Preyer’s contributions were in the areas of color vision and child development. Preyer wrote the first book that specifically addressed child psychology, The Mind of the Child (1881).

1911 — The first mental hospital in the province of Alberta, located in Ponoka, was opened for the admission of patients. Alberta was part of the Northwest Territories until 1905 and its residents with mental illness were previously treated in Manitoba provincial institutions at the rate of one dollar per day.

1936 — The journal Nature published a short report by Hans Selye titled “A Syndrome Produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents.” This was the first published description of Selye’s “general adaptation syndrome” and described stressor-induced stages of alarm, adaptation, and exhaustion. The article, submitted on May 18, 1936, aroused considerable controversy and research.

1971 — The first Symposium of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development was held in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

The Intrepid Joseph Jastrow

The Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison features an excerpt about Joseph Jastrow (1863 –1944), an American experimental psychologist who received his doctorate degree from the first psychology lab in the U.S. (G. Stanley Hall’s at Johns Hopkins).

In it you’ll learn about Jastrow’s background along with his contributions to psychology (and his later diatribes against behaviorism and the followers of Freud).

What interesting pieces have you read lately about the history of psychology?
Please share in the comments section.

This month you’ll find everything from information about Alan Turing to Phineas Gage to Carl Jung to the infamous Robbers Cave Experiment.

Alan Turing

This year marks a century since Alan Turing’s birth. A mathematician and code-breaker, Turing also was the founder of computer science and artificial intelligence. Nature has a variety of articles and a podcast on everything from Turing’s famous 1936 paper to his other interests. Also, here’s another podcast that explores Turing’s tragic life and his incredible contributions.

“The Beast Within”

This 15-minute podcast explores the human brain, including the infamous case of Phineas Gage, phrenology and Sigmund Freud. (I’ve written before about Gage and other men with brain injuries here and phrenology here.)

“Sigmund Freud, MD: Forgotten Contributions to Neurology, Neuropathology, and Anesthesia”

Many people may not know that Freud started out as a neurologist and strived to become a pioneer in neuroscience. In this 2004 article David Galbis-Reig, MD, discusses Freud’s significant contributions to the fields of neurology, neuropathology and anesthesia.

As Galbis-Reig writes, “In fact, many students and clinicians in the neurosciences are not even aware that Freud’s initial scientific work was instrumental in allowing for the major discoveries of his time.”

Also, this is another 15-minute podcast from the same series as above about “the part Freud almost played in the history of the brain.”

“A Week with the Boys”

In the 1950s social psychologists and spouses Muzafer Sherif and Carolyn Sherif conducted a well-known series of experiments to study group dynamics. Named the Robbers Cave Experiment, it studied the behavior of 22 11-year-old boys under the ruse of attending a summer camp.

In this article writer Gene Perry discusses the interesting ins and outs of this work along with compelling tidbits of the Sherifs’s personal and professional lives. For instance, Muzafer Sherif composed an outline for his social psychology book while in a Turkish prison for writing anti-Nazi books. Muzafer and Carolyn collaborated for 17 years on the same research, but Carolyn never received the same recognition: She was never given a faculty position.

“Psychology’s Magician”

Writer Algis Valiunas refers to Carl Jung as psychology’s magician and compares his work to Freud’s in this piece in The New Atlantis. According to Valiunas:

The method of [Jung’s] analytical psychology — as he called it, to distinguish it from Freudian psychoanalysis — was nothing short of fantastic. To penetrate the psyche of a woman destined for schizophrenic disintegration, he would study dreams, reveries, her “borderland phenomena” — the apparitions that came to her as she was half-asleep — and explicate them in the light of Mithraic religious symbols, Old Testament wisdom, the words of Jesus, passages from Shakespeare, poems by Nietzsche, Teutonic and Persian and Chinese and Indian legend. His path-breaking 1912 book Symbols of Transformation tracks the course of this woman’s treatment and introduces what would be Jung’s characteristic methods of interpretation. Although Jung focuses intently on a particular patient with a particular disorder, his study has a far more extensive cultural reach. He was out to dethrone arid modern scientism and restore the symbolic imagination — which is to say, religious feeling — to its rightful place in the life of men.

As Valiunas writes elsewhere in the piece:

Freud’s ideas were once taboo, then conventional wisdom, and now largely in disrepute. But since Freud’s approach still largely comports with our rationalist shibboleths, we have found a comfortable niche for him as a father of modern psychology. Jung remains a more inscrutable, potentially subversive figure: the self-avowed scientist who seemed to embrace all that science defined itself in opposition to — religion, mysticism, even parts of pseudoscience, but most significantly the depths of the human soul. In embracing the strangeness of the human psyche from within itself, he remains that father of psychology who still threatens to upend our view of ourselves.

Online Suicide Prevention Resources is a small wiki focussed on crisis resources available online without a telephone. There are listings for social media, secure IM chat, and public forums.

It was inspired by the International Suicide Prevention Wiki, created by Post Secret, which features a table of links and directories for telephone crisis hotlines and resources all over the world. The list I created today is solely for non-phone contacts. Included are details of the hours for each service.

Why make such a list? In today’s cell phone family plan homes, calls show up on bills read by parents, and youth might want privacy for a long list of reasons including the parents being the problem. By using the Internet, people can connect one on one to trained counselors, then clear browser histories on shared computers. Youth in BC, one of the best IM chat sites and very aware of the needs of its viewers, offers a “hide page” button on its home page that goes immediately to Google’s search home page. For people who are more comfortable with public details (but still don’t identify in posts) there are discussion forums. There’s also a group on Second Life. Plus, old-fashioned email.

If you write a blog or update twitter and Facebook accounts, there are updated guidelines for you as the media on how to write about suicide to prevent contagion.

Foremost, there are coping skills and reasons for living for those considering suicide. All free and online.

Two hours after I posted the link to Twitter, I had a response from a person who had taken an overdose but contacted someone after seeing the list. Already more than worth my effort. It’s helped save one life, that I know of. If you post the link too who else might it help?

Here’s the quick version:

Online Suicide Prevention
(No telephone needed)

IM Chat
CrisisChat
GLBT National Help Center Online Peer Support Chat
IM Alive
RAINN Online Hotline
Veteran’s Live Chat
Talk to a Live Counselor
Youth in BC

Email
Samaritans
Youth in BC

Vital Information
Coping With Suicidal Thoughts
Reasons to go on Living
Suicide…read this first

One thing illustrated is a need for more resources. Click here to view the longer list, and please leave additions for links to online supports, in the comments. Note that these resources are not a substitute for emergency services in your community; please call an ambulance if you are in imminent risk.

Psych Central bloggers are some of the most dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in the field of mental health. Some are professionals, some are not, but all share one thing in common — they have a knack for writing about psychology and mental health issues with a dedication and enthusiasm you don’t see elsewhere. We love our bloggers — they are simply some of the best people you’ll ever meet (virtually!).

We’re proud to represent mental health and wellness awareness this day, in our own unique and personalized way. We’ll be updating this post throughout the day with new posts that are published from our bloggers, so stay tuned!

Artists and Mental Health
(The Creative Mind) – “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.” Herman Melville, “Billy Budd, Sailor” According to …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. If you are drinking or using drugs your therapist needs to know.

Five Life-Changing Mental Health Books
(Always Learning) – For Mental Health Awareness Day, I’ve picked out five of the most amazingly informative, life-changing mental health books I’ve ever read: Loneliness; Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection by John Cacioppo and William Patrick The Noonday Demon; an Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon Against Depression by Peter …

Understanding Emotional Eating
(360 Degrees of Mindful Living) – Emotional eating is misunderstood and often unnecessarily demonized. However, emotional eating — that is, eating to feel good, often termed “compulsive eating” — isn’t the problem. It’s emotional overeating and mindless emotional eating that can be both psychologically and physically unhealthy. Emotional eating works as a coping strategy and stress …

Excavating Your Mental Health and Finding Buried Treasure
(The Therapist Within) – “Mental health.” They sound like pretty dull words. And it seems we know best what they mean when things go wrong with them. We hear general statements about what mental health ‘should’ (or ‘shouldn’t’) look like for everyone. So it often seems like a kind of one-size-fits-all expression. But if …

The One Major Lesson I’ve Learned
(Mindfulness and Psychotherapy) – For this APA Mental Health Blog Party, I’m going to get right down to it. If there’s one major lesson I’ve learned it’s that we can’t always control what happens to us, but true freedom lies in cultivating the awareness to choose how we want to respond. Mindfulness is fundamental …

Happy Mental Health Blogging Day! Please Join Us in the Global Mental Health Movement
(ADHD in Focus) – It is so amazing how organizations are popping up all over the world helping all join forces to tackle mental health diseases.  I was privileged enough to speak in Athens, Greece a few years ago about iFred’s rebranding depression work, and learned from countries around the world just how important …

Mental Health Blog Party: Why Do I Blog About Mental Health?
(World of Psychology) – As part of May Is Mental Health Awareness Month, many of us here at PsychCentral are participating in a Mental Health Blog Party hosted by the American Psychological Association. Today, May 18, we are all blogging about mental health awareness. Here’s my contribution. Why do I blog about mental health?

Mental Health Month: 7 Ways To Advocate Like A Celebrity!
(Celebrity Psychings) – Every May since 1949, people all across the United States band together to shine a spotlight on mental health. We call it Mental Health Month, and we aim to increase mental health awareness and provide information about resources, educational tools, and support. Given that one in four Americans lives with …

Worshiping at the Shrine of a Really Good Shrink
(Real World Research) – I put myself into psychotherapy for the first time when I was a teenager, and have returned at various times over the years when I’ve been overwhelmed by whatever. But when a friend compared my attitude about therapy to a fundamentalist’s attitude towards religion—implying that it is unyielding and intolerant …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.  …

My Fall – The Beginning
(Adventures of a Bipolar Mom) – I vividly remember when my oldest son was born a horrific story of two teenage parents who had given birth to a little baby boy, killed him, and put him in a dumpster.  I was devastated.  I could not believe any parent could do that.  I didn’t understand it.  I …

The Stigma Of Eating Disorders & Setting Stereotypes Straight
(Weightless) – Eating disorders are serious biologically-based mental illnesses, which can affect anyone. They do not discriminate by age, gender, class, color, culture, size, shape or weight. They cause a variety of health complications, including heart problems, electrolyte imbalances and osteoporosis. Eating disorders also have the highest mortality rate of any mental …

10 Ways to Improve Your Relationship Through Good Mental Health
(Partners in Wellness) – Today, May 18, 2011, the American Psychological Association has dedicated the day to blogging about mental health. Obviously, we blog about mental health every day around here on PsychCentral, but in honor of today’s celebration, here’s a list of 10 ways you can enhance your relationship through good mental health …

Mental Health Awareness Day: Battling Stigma through Science and Medicine
(Bipolar Beat) – As a psychiatrist, every day I encounter families struggling with mental illness, especially in their children whose lives range from disrupted to shattered as a consequence of these challenges. In these daily battles I’m most frustrated and saddened by the jaw-dropping lack of compassion surrounding me and my patients regarding …

What “Soft” Bipolar Looks Like
(Light, Laughter and Life) – So today’s the APA’s Mental Health Blog Party and I’m here to share a little about my own experiences with what’s often called “Soft Bi-Polar” or Soft Signs of Bi-polar. Like so many illnesses, there’s a broad spectrum of which to be positioned…. from having soft signs (a “little bipolar” …

Increasing Mental Health Awareness: Too Much of a Good Thing?
(World of Psychology) – Today is the American Psychological Association’s “Blog Party” in recognition of May being mental health month. The marketing effort behind designating a specific month a time to recognize and help increase awareness of a certain disease, disorder or condition is intended to help people learn more about various medical and …

Party in My Head
(Mentoring and Recovery) – When I first heard about the APA’s (American Psychological Association) Mental Health Blog Party, I thought, “Wha?!?” A blog party. That part was confusing enough. About mental health? And I thought there was bickering in my head about meanings before. So. A Mental. Health. Blog. PARTY. I decided I had to check this out. I learned that …

The Death of Mental Illness
(Guideposts to Happiness) – In writing this post, I may be crashing the American Psychological Association’s annual blog party. Naturally, I’m in favor of joining others to increase awareness and reduce stigma around psychiatric problems. But despite the spirit of solidarity, I’m perhaps an outsider, because I no longer believe ‘mental illness’ serves as …

Robert Duval in ‘Get Low’: The Lasting Power of Guilt and Shame
(Movies and Mental Health) – ‘Get Low’ (2009) starring Robert Duval, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray, offers powerful lessons about the lasting effects of guilt and shame.

Has Your Therapist Ever Been In Therapy?
(Healing Together for Couples) – If you have even wondered if your therapist has been in therapy you may be surprised to find that the majority of mental health practitioners actually practice what they preach. A national survey of psychologists found that 400 of 476 or 84% of those responding reported having been in therapy. …

APA Blog Party – A Story Of Postpartum Depression and PMDD
(Family Mental Health) – [Postpartum Depression and PMDD - Hope For Help] Today I’m participating in the APA (American Psychological Association) Blog Party! I’m going to take my turn by telling my postpartum depression story and share some thoughts on the general topic of mental health. …

The Five Freedoms of Becoming More Fully Human – Virginia Satir & Mental Health
(Neuroscience and Relationships) – In celebration of mental health, today’s post honors family psychotherapist and social worker extraordinaire Virginia Satir. Recognized by many as “the pioneer of family therapy,” she developed her own approach, conjoint family therapy, in the 1960s, later known as the human validation process model or the Satir Change Model as …

I’m a Chick ADD – and Proud Of It!
(ADHD from A to Zoë) – Some of you know how I found out about having ADHD: my friend Chris, who is TOTALLY ADD, suggested I take an online test for it myself. The one test you DON’T want to Ace… Now, normally, I’m happy to ace a test. This one, not so much… The test …

Reasons to Live (Video)
(Channel N) – “I am alive because…” People share why and how they are alive now after dealing with suicidal thoughts.

Getting the Mental Health Help You Need
(Anxiety and OCD Exposed) – We are writing today in support of the American Psychological Association’s Mental Health Blog Party. Here’s to all of us who have chronic, acute, or occasional issues with mental health. That’s commonly thought to be 1 out of every 4 people. But to be honest, being human pretty much guarantees …

Bipolar Dad: Out of the Mouth of My Children
(Mental Health Humor) – Today, May 18th, 2011 is a very special day here at Psych Central! Collectively, many of the bloggers will be posting personal stories of their recovery during the day long Blog party. I thought I would take a different approach and let my 4  kids draw a caricature of me.

The High Cost of Stigma
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy Understood) – Good mental health is something that we all strive for.  Happiness in life has long been a pursuit of people in the West.  And yet, despite our desire for optimum happiness and good mental health, many feel unable to discuss psychological problems. In a recent interview, I talked with author …

Drinking Or Drugging? 10 Reasons To Tell Your Therapist The Truth
(Therapy Soup) – If you’re seeing a psychologist or counselor for a mental illness, the chances are fairly good that you also drink or take drugs that are not prescribed for you (or abuse drugs that are prescribed for you). The chances are also fairly good that your therapist has no idea that you are using alcohol or drugs. Many therapists in private practice do not take complete drug and alcohol histories when doing the initial or subsequent evaluations. If you ain’t volunteering the information, they won’t know …

Because, after all, you don’t need a special day once a year to let your loved ones know how much you care about them. While you don’t need to let them know every day, just remembering to let them know from time to time is all that’s needed. People just need to know — and hear — they are loved and appreciated (even if they’re “supposed” to know it).

Each year, our writers and bloggers put together some great entries for Mother’s Day. Here’s the batch from this year…

Mother’s Day is About More Than Cards
by Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.

Helping your kids make Mother’s Day your special day.

Honoring Your Mom When Your Relationship is Thorny
by Margarita Tartakovsky, MS

Thoughts and reflections on difficult mother-daughter relationships.

Inspiring Quotes in Honor of Mothers and the Gifts of “Mothering”
by Dr. Athena Staik

Some great quotes and contemplations on being a mother.

A Mindful Mother’s Day – Embracing Both The Pain And The Joy
by Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar

Advice if you’ve lost your mother, or have a difficult relationship with her.

Nurturing Yourself: A Mother’s Day Mindfulness
by Christy Matta, MA

Regardless of your current relationship with your mom or the amount of nurturing you received as a child, it’s important to be able to nurture positive qualities in yourself.

Julia Ward Howe and the First Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870
by Dr. Athena Staik

The First Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870.

And if you want to read something special, check out the Mother’s Day Rally for Mental Health over at Postpartum Progress. There you’ll find a wealth of additional mother’s day blog entries focused on mental health.

And for some people, that completed mission was cause for celebration.  Last Sunday evening and Monday morning, American flags were hoisted into the air, people stood out on the streets cheering and the internet was buzzing with elation. If you owned a Twitter or Facebook account, you saw it. 

I certainly did.  In fact, I learned about bin Laden’s death before the President even announced it: I was Facebook chatting with the very friend who was sitting next to me almost 10 years ago when the twin towers came down and suddenly, status updates were exploding.

“I think Osama bin Laden was just shot,” I typed to my friend who had been in the same English classroom on September 11th, who had rushed to the phone at the same time as me, our fathers both frequent passengers on that particular flight across the US, “I can’t be sure but Facebook is freaking out.”

“What? Really?!  Wait let me check…”

She disappeared for a few minutes, most probably catching the newly blossoming story on Twitter.  By the time she signed back on to Facebook, we were both fully updated on the latest news. 

“It’s weird…” she typed later, as we waited for Obama to address the nation, “I was talking to you right before the towers came down… and now this. My head is having a hard time putting stuff together.”

My friend’s reaction — a deer in the headlights hesitancy over bin Laden’s death — is not the loudest reaction being reported by the news media, but it’s definitely here, hanging over many of us like a thick fog. While it seems like something we should be jubilant about, many of us are having a hard time understanding what this man’s death actually means.

This contemplation has not been lost on our bloggers here at Psych Central, and while it’s not always easy to take a quieter emotional stance on something the media is urging us to scream and shout about, this week, a few of them have done just that. If you’re finding yourself a bit at odds with the news of Osama’s death, perhaps these thoughtful posts will help you realize that being conflicted over the death of a mass murderer — and what that death means for our future as Americans — is perfectly normal.

The Death of Bin Laden: Looking Backwards to Heal Forwards from Healing Together For Couples

Instead of  picking apart the events that occurred early this week, Suzanne Philips uses this post to reach out to those who may feel incredibly triggered by the events, whether because they are still dealing with the aftermath of September 11th, or simply with other trauma.

On The Death of A Mass Murderer from Therapy Soup

In Richard Zwolinski’s opinion, Osama gave up his “normative human status” when he became a killer, and US forces had a right to stop him, “permanently.” But celebrating a death, and understanding that it had to be done, are two very different things.

Osama Bin Laden is Dead: A Mindful Response from Mindfulness & Psychotherapy

Elisha Goldstein’s take on bin Laden’s death is something I can personally relate to – it’s not he and I don’t think what the military did was right, it’s the idea of celebrating death, really, anyone’s death, that makes us uneasy.  Will bin Laden’s death bring back the people he killed, or ease the suffering of those who lost loved ones? Most of us want to believe it – but the truth is that a man’s death, no matter how fitting, cannot reverse his deeds.