The lie has become so ingrained in our culture that we accept it without question. Today, I question it, its validity and its basis. Just because it has become our national motto doesn’t make it right. This is the lie… Read More ›
Psychology
POSTPARTUM DOULAS – BY ELLIN CURLEY
I wrote a blog a while back in which I argued that we need to require parenting classes for everyone. They should be at least as prevalent as Driver’s Ed classes. I had my first child at 30, in 1980…. Read More ›
TEENAGE SEXUAL ASSAULT – BY ELLIN CURLEY
Judge Brett Kavanaugh has been nominated to the Supreme Court and has been accused of attempted rape as a seventeen year old. This has precipitated a national debate over acceptable teenage behavior. Kavanaugh’s enablers have several, typical defenses for him…. Read More ›
QUICK AND EASY STRESS CONTROL – PART 4
This is the final part of a four-part series. You can read the others here: Part I, Part 2, Part 3. Stress Everyday stress is a killer. Literally. The greatest damage from stress is caused by excessive triggering of the… Read More ›
QUICK AND EASY STRESS CONTROL – PART 1
I was a Yoga teacher for eight years. My training taught me a lot about the interrelationship between the mind and the body, on a physiological, scientifically explainable level. Using that knowledge, I compiled some quick and easy stress control… Read More ›
FREUD AND MY FATHER, PART 1 – ELLIN CURLEY
(All quotes are from my father’s book, “My Analysis With Freud, Reminiscences”, by A. Kardiner, M.D.) My father’s first contact with Sigmund Freud was a letter he received in 1921 accepting him as a student of Freud’s in Vienna. My… Read More ›
RELATIONSHIP MYSTERIES – BY ELLIN CURLEY
My mother was a psychologist with a private practice. She saw lots of relationships up close and personal. She always wondered how people seemed to be able to find others who satisfied their unconscious needs. The Yin to their Yang…. Read More ›
I SENT MY HUSBAND AND MY MOM TO COUPLES’ COUNSELING – BY ELLIN CURLEY
I swear to God, I actually made my first husband, Larry, go with my mom to couples’ counseling. They were driving me crazy. They fought with each other. They each talked to me against the other. They both tried to… Read More ›
PSYCHIATRY LET ME DOWN – BY ELLIN CURLEY
My father was a well-known psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. My mother was a psychologist. I was like the shoemaker’s kids who goes without shoes. I was not well-served by the psychiatric profession. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. I was just born too… Read More ›
BORN FREE OR AT LEAST INDEPENDENT – BY ELLIN CURLEY
My daughter, Sarah, came out of the womb as her own person. Her independent spirit revealed itself before the age of two and a half. Psychologists I’ve talked to say this is unusual. But does it mean that this aspect… Read More ›
BEFORE CHILD PSYCHOLOGY – BY ELLIN CURLEY
My mother was born in 1916 and was brought up before modern child psychology was a ‘thing’. Judging from her early experiences, no one in those days seemed to worry about damaging the psyches of impressionable young children. For example,… Read More ›
MY MOTHER COULD’VE BEEN MARILYN MONROE’S THERAPIST – BY ELLIN CURLEY
In 1962, Marilyn Monroe was working on her last movie, “Something’s Got to Give”, by 20th Century Fox. One of the producers on that film was a man named Henry Weinstein. He was brought into the production because it was… Read More ›