February 2012 - Knowledge is Necessity

Personal Note

I'm head down, ass up, putting together an ebook I plan to self-publish as a Kindle edition. I'm aiming to get the book out in two weeks. The book is based on a number of my pieces here at Knowledge is Necessity. It will be a humorous memoir with...

Published Tue, Feb 28 2012 2:56 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Raccoons Respect My Piss

Rerun: McMan's Dispensable Rules and Observations for Right Living

I've been tied up with a lot of volunteer work and work on new projects. Looking forward to returning to live posting fairly soon. In the meantime, this from April last year ... My grandson’s birth in Sept 2009 inspired me to come up with two posts...

Published Sat, Feb 25 2012 1:18 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, right living, wisdom

Rerun: Is Republicanism the New Stupid?

From Sept, 2010, still relevant ... "Republicanism isn't a party. It's a diagnosis." A friend of mine happened to relate that to me in a conversation about a year ago, and I have no reason to dispute it. In fact, we actually have the...

Published Thu, Feb 23 2012 12:42 PM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, brain science, republicanism, stupid

Rerun - Presidents Day Special: Lincoln and His Depressions

I originally published this as a newsletter piece in 2005 and soon after on mcmanweb. Enjoy ... The year is 1860. In a makeshift meeting hall, the Illinois delegation to the approaching Republican Convention is meeting to consider which of their own to...

Published Mon, Feb 20 2012 5:07 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Lincoln, depression

Is Bereavement Part of Depression? And What the Hell is Depression, Anyway?

Willa Goodfellow’s latest Prozac Monologues piece raises the very important discussion about how bereavement fits (or not) into depression. Ronald Pies, one of the two principal figures behind the proposed DSM-5 “bereavement exclusion” to the depression...

Published Fri, Feb 17 2012 6:54 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, depression, Willa Goodfellow, bereavement, Ronald Pies

Willa Goodfellow's Prozac Monologues: Still Going Strong

I’ve been telling people for years that my beat covers everything from God to neurons. A month or two ago, I incorporated “From God to Neurons” into the subtitle of Knowledge is Necessity. In mid-2009, I had the pleasure of discovering online the other...

Published Thu, Feb 16 2012 2:32 PM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Willa Goodfellow, Prozac Monologues

Revisiting the Normal vs Crazy Thing

Last night, I had a nightmare that I danced like a white man. This was way worse than my recurring dream where I’m married to Sarah Palin. Naturally, it was a huge relief to wake up and - oh crap! - well, at least I’m bipolar. Most of you know what I...

Published Wed, Feb 15 2012 10:56 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: Crazy, John McManamy, normal

In Memoriam: Charles Sakai

I just learned that someone dear to me, Charles Sakai, passed away two or three weeks ago. Charles was a comrade-in-arms - mental health advocate, history buff, and Mahler fan. We’d been in each other’s lives for at least ten years, the last three or...

Published Tue, Feb 14 2012 6:35 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Charles Sakai

Can Integrative Psychiatry Save Psychiatry?

Integrative psychiatry involves incorporating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into clinical practice. I first came across the term in mid-2003 at a two-day conference, “Non-Pharmaceutical Approaches to Mental Disorders” staged in Pasadena...

Published Mon, Feb 13 2012 11:11 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, integrative psychiatry, Hyla Cass, Dan Stradford

Charles Darwin and Evolutionary Psychiatry

In honor of Darwin's 2003rd birthday, from mcmanweb ... Here's an interesting fact: Peacock tails drove Darwin crazy. The sight of one "makes me sick," he wrote. These feathered accessories played havoc with his work-in-progress theory...

Published Sun, Feb 12 2012 2:00 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, evolution, evolutionary psychiatry, Charles Darwin

Rerun: My Visit to the Local Creationist Museum (Seriously, I'm Not Making This Up)

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday tomorrow, this piece from Dec 2010 ... Believe it or not, this museum is only 10 or 12 miles from my home, outside San Diego. This journey through time will be a very short one, as the entire universe, earth included...

Published Sat, Feb 11 2012 3:24 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, creationism, evolution

Shedding Light on Brain Research: A Scientist Responds to Whitaker

Last week, I wrote a piece highly critical of a post Robert Whitaker published on his blog, Mad in America. His post attacked a very recent Scripps Institute study, which became the basis of his own editorializing on the research agenda of the NIMH, namely...

Published Fri, Feb 10 2012 2:37 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Robert Whitaker, Elizabeth Thomas, brain research

The Cortical Factor: What Is Going On In Our Brains With Gay Marriage and All That?

Picking up from where we left off: According to Robert Sapolsky of Stanford, the amygdala and the frontal cortex essentially regulate each other. The projections from the frontal cortex are inhibitory, as are the projections from the amygdala. In Sapolsky's...

Published Wed, Feb 08 2012 5:10 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Robert Sapolsky, cortex, gay marriage, moral outrage

The Cortical Factor: Developing the Optimum Brain

Take the teen-age brain - please! First, a quick review: In our previous post, Robert Sapolsky of Stanford (pictured here) explained how the frontal cortex is about doing the harder thing, if it is the right thing to do. Essentially, the more developed...

Published Tue, Feb 07 2012 8:23 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Robert Sapolsky, cortex

The Cortical Factor

I just finished viewing Lecture 18 in a 25-part video series by Robert Sapolsky of Stanford. Dr Sapolsky is to human behavior what Carl Sagan was to astronomy. There is no one better at explaining the topic to the general public than this man. It’s not...

Published Mon, Feb 06 2012 11:59 AM by Knowledge Is Necessity

Filed under: John McManamy, Robert Sapolsky, anterior cingulate cortex, human behavior