Cognitive Behavior Therapy - is becoming less effective

The Guardian  Everybody loves cognitive behavioural therapy. It’s the no-nonsense, quick and relatively cheap approach to mental suffering – with none of that Freudian bollocks, and plenty of scientific backing. So it was unsettling to learn, from a paper in the journal Psychological Bulletin, that it seems to be getting less effective over time. After analysing 70 studies conducted between 1977 and 2014, researchers Tom Johnsen and Oddgeir Friborg concluded that CBT is roughly half as effective in treating depression as it used to be.

What’s going on? One theory is that, as any therapy grows more popular, the proportion of inexperienced or incompetent therapists grows bigger. But the paper raises a more intriguing idea: the placebo effect. The early publicity around CBT made it seem a miracle cure, so maybe it functioned like one for a while. These days, by contrast, the chances are you know someone who’s tried CBT and didn’t miraculously become perfectly happy for ever. Our expectations have become more realistic, so effectiveness has fallen, too. Johnsen and Friborg worry that their own paper will make matters worse by further lowering people’s expectations.

All this highlights something even stranger, though: when it comes to talk therapy, what does it even mean to speak of the placebo effect? With pills, it’s straightforward: if I swallow a sugar tablet, believing it to be an antidepressant, and my depression lifts, then there’s a good chance the placebo effect is at work. But if I believe that CBT, or any therapy, is likely to work, and it does, who’s to say if my beliefs were really the cause, rather than the therapy? Beliefs are an integral part of the process, not a rival explanation. The line between what I think is going on and what is going on starts to blur. Truly convince yourself that a psychological intervention is working and by definition it’s working.

Perhaps every era needs a practice it can believe in as a miracle cure – Freudian psychoanalysis in the 1930s, CBT in the 1990s, mindfulness meditation today – until research gradually reveals it to be as flawed as everything else. [...]

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Mindfulness Is Just As Effective As Cognitive Behavioral Therapy In Treating Anxiety, Depression 

Medical Daily   According to a new study out of Lund University in Sweden, mindfulness can be just as effective as your typical therapist who practices cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which necessitates focusing on negative thoughts and having a discussion, as well as running experiments, on them.  

The study, led by Professor Jan Sundquist, was held at 16 primary health care centers in southern Sweden. The researchers trained two mindfulness instructors at each health care center during a six-day training course. Participants of the study, who suffered from depression, anxiety, or severe stress, were gathered into groups of 10 for structured group mindfulness treatment. The patients also received a private training program, and were asked to record their exercises and thoughts in a journal. For eight weeks, all 215 of them went through mindfulness therapy, then answered questions about their depression and anxiety. The researchers found that self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety had decreased during the treatment period.

“The study’s results indicate that group mindfulness treatment, conducted by certified instructors in primary health care, is as effective a treatment method as individual CBT for treating depression and anxiety,” Sundquist said in a press release. “This means that group mindfulness treatment should be considered as an alternative to individual psychotherapy, especially at primary health care centers that can’t offer everyone individual therapy.”

The notion of mindfulness dates back to ancient Buddhism, and is an essential part of the religion. It involves accepting the present moment and focusing on the sensations, feelings, and thoughts that are happening right now. Being able to reduce the extraneous "noise" from anxiety, worrying, and fear can help people focus on and live in the moment, and also allow them to lessen unnecessary stress. [...]

Efraim Cray acquitted of charges of sexually abusing 14 year old girl

 update:   I am pleased to note that I just received an email from a member of JCW's Board of Advisors that JCW has in fact finally posted a news item which acknowledges Cray's acquittal .

http://www.jewishcommunitywatch.org/?s=cray 

I have received some nasty criticism for noting the absence of an acknowledgment of Cray's acquittal on the JCW site - 5 months after it happened. Claims included that I have an agenda against JCW or that I have been bought. Neither accusation is true. I did make an error in my original post when I stated that Cray was listed on JCW's Wall of Shame. He was not but a news item regarding the accusations against him - as well as acquittal on one of the 3 charges -  had been posted. My concern was the fact that the news item of the accusations was still up - after full acquittal - but no mention of the full acquittal itself. The full acquittal was in Februrary while my posted criticism was June 30..

However the issue is rather simple. When an organization such as JCW posts a news item about an individual that he is accused of being a molester - most people take it as  as a serious concern and heavy possibility that it is true. It is therefore reasonable and appropriate that information regarding acquittal should also be posted as soon as possible. I acknowledge that JCW has done a lot of good for the community - but they are not above criticism. I stand by my original concern and I am glad to hear that they have made the appropriate acknowledgment- even though it was made 5 months later. Hopefully news of acquittal will be made in a more timely fashion in the future.

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Tottenham Journal February 2015 [posted June 30, 2015]

Efraim Cray, 32, was accused of abusing the girl between January 2012 and January 2013.

Cray, of Wellington Drive, South Tottenham, faced three charges of sexual assault by touching at his trial last year, but was acquitted of one charge on the directions of the judge.

He was cleared of the remaining charges at Snaresbrook Crown Court today after the complainant withdrew her allegations, writing a seven-page retraction statement in the presence of an independently-appointed solicitor.

During Cray’s first trial in November, prosecutor Roger Smith-Daniels said they both lived “in a closed community” and the victim, although aged almost 15 at the time, “knew very little about sexual matters... she didn’t know, for example, what the word vagina meant”.

Cray’s first trial collapsed when the girl admitted she had become confused and told lies during her police interview.

Mr Smith-Daniels said: “The complainant in this case has grown up in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community of Stamford Hill and went on to make allegations against other men, including her own brother. [...]

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unfortunately the false accusations have not yet been retracted from Jewish Community web site   and a number of blogs

'Utter hypocrite' Todros Grynhaus jailed for 13 years for sex assaults

Jewish Chronicle  A Jewish teacher and rabbi’s son who molested two teenage girls was “an utter hypocrite” who professed his Orthodox faith while “cynically condemning his victims to suffer”, a judge has said.

Todros Grynhaus, 50, was jailed for 13 years and two months on Friday.

He must pay one victim £45,000 and the other £35,000 in compensation as well as prosecution costs of £35,000.[..]

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Timothy Holroyde said: “This was a refined degree of cruelty on your part. You knew what you were doing and you knew what harm you would cause. You are an utter hypocrite. You professed your religion whilst cynically condemning your victims to suffer and giving false evidence seeking to cast blame on them.

“I have no doubt that you felt able to rely on a prevailing attitude of insularity which you hoped would prevent these allegations from ever coming to the attention of the police. You hoped that, at worse, you might have to pay a form of financial penalty as directed at the Beth Din.

“You believed that the combination of the girls’ sexual ignorance and the attitudes of some within your community would make it even harder for your victims to complain about you, and you came close to getting away with it.

“Even when the allegations were reported to the police, I am afraid the evidence I have heard shows that many in your community were taken in by your lying protestations of innocence. Others will have to examine their own consciences, and should reflect that, but for the courage of your two victims, your serious crimes would have gone unpunished.

“You are a highly intelligent man. You knew the consequences of your wicked actions. You saw the distress of the witnesses during the trial. You could have spared them that additional harm but you chose to brazen it out, twice giving evidence which you now admit was untrue. In my judgement there is a significant risk you will commit further sexual offences against a girl or girls.” [...]

n mitigation, Grynhaus’ barrister Jonathan Goldberg QC, said his client had not offended in the past decade and had “profited” from the psychological treatment he received.

“He had outstandingly good character as a neighbour, communal figure and as a teacher,” he said. “Of course, it can be said and rightly so that those people could not see his darker psychosexual side.

“Part of the punishment for this man is the shame and exposure and social ostracisation within the community. This case has erupted like a scandal in a monastery.” [...]

Doctor who gave unnecessary cancer treatment to 553 patients - sentenced to 45 years.

 CNN    Detroit-area doctor who authorities say gave cancer treatment drugs to patients who did not need them -- including some who didn't actually have cancer -- was sentenced Friday to 45 years in prison.
 

Federal prosecutors called him the "most egregious fraudster in the history of this country." To Fata, they said, "patients were not people. They were profit centers."

Fata forfeited $17.6 million that he collected from Medicare and private insurance companies. Some 553 patients received medically unnecessary infusions or injections, prosecutors said.

The hematologist-oncologist gave an emotional apology in court, saying he was "ashamed" of his actions.

"I have violated the Hippocratic oath and violated the trust of my patients," Fata said, according to CNN affiliate WDIV. "I do not know how I can heal the wound. I do not know how to express the sorrow and the shame." [...]

update  his wife allegedly fled to Lebanon with $10s M.

Student Doctor Network

Additional background information

Detroit News

CBS News         The government says a man who took an oath to do no harm instead turned more than 500 of his patients into victims in a shocking case of medical fraud.

Courtroom sketches could not adequately capture the anguish of the victims Tuesday as one by one, they confronted the cancer doctor who prescribed aggressive chemotherapy for patients he knew were not ill, and for those who were, ordering treatments that were excessive while billing medicare $34 million. [...]

Fata has already pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges. A memo from prosecutors demanding a life sentence said Fata would tell his patients they risked death without him. Telling one: "Your life or your money."

From Laura Stedtefeld, whose father died in Fata's care: "You poisoned, tortured and murdered my dad."[..]

A good question is how he got away with this and the answer is Dr. Fata was a well-respected physician backed up by other well-respected physicians and a prominent local hospital. But it was a doctor who worked for him, who ultimately blew the whistle on his actions.

FDA Strengthens Heart Attack, Stroke Warning for Popular Painkillers [NSAIDS]

US News and World Report

The U.S Food and Drug Administration on Thursday strengthened the warning labels for widely used painkillers like ibuprofen and naproxen, saying they can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke.

The FDA is asking people to think carefully about their use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), particularly if they've already had a heart attack, according to a consumer update on the agency's website.

The agency said it is taking this action based on recent data that shows the risk of heart attack or stroke can increase even after using NSAIDs for a short time.

"They used to say they might cause risk of heart attack or stroke. Now we are saying they do cause increased risk of heart attack and stroke," FDA spokesman Eric Pahon told NBC News.[...]

 Although aspirin is also an NSAID, the revised warning doesn't apply to aspirin, the FDA said.[...]

People with heart disease or high blood pressure should consult a doctor before using an NSAID, the FDA said. 

 However, the agency noted that the cardiovascular risk also is present in people without heart health problems. "Everyone may be at risk -- even people without an underlying risk for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Judy Racoosin, deputy director of the FDA's Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Addiction Products. [...]

I, Pedophile - David Goldberg describes his life as a pedophile

The Atlantic

For almost 20 years, I spent virtually every night of my life in the same manner: Sitting in front of my computer and either trawling the Internet for child pornography or looking at the pictures and videos that were already a part of my collection. No matter how many images I found and regardless of how sleep deprived I felt, nothing would stop me from continuing this perverse pursuit. It was my own carelessness that finally got me arrested, when I used my credit card to order some films that had images of naked boys, although none of these movies were of a sexual nature. One police officer later told me he thought I had gotten caught on purpose, because, subliminally, it was the only way I would stop. He was right about the latter, but not the former. No one who is a pedophile wants to get caught and have their horrifying secret revealed to the world.

In fact, there were some nights—but not too many—when I would dare to sit in my chair after my computer was turned off and imagine how it would feel to get arrested. Would I fall to the ground in the fetal position, would I throw up, burst into tears or perhaps even have a heart attack? When that day finally came for me, I did none of those. After the lead detective read me my rights and asked several questions regarding my computer, a strange calm washed over me. I knew my job as a local newspaper editor and my hobby coaching baseball had both come to an end. Yet the overriding thoughts in my head were not of my past, but more of my future. I knew that I was in a unique position to help others understand the bewildering life of a pedophile. I had never asked to be cursed with this sexual attraction, and I had never hurt a child. In fact, I was always a good role model as a coach, and an upstanding citizen throughout my days. It was the nights that were a problem.

Over the months that followed my arrest, my journalistic instincts took over. I wanted to know how a lifetime of lusting after young children could seem so normal to me on an emotional level, even though I knew rationally that it was a completely deviant lifestyle. I would spend my days longing to get back onto my computer, the way a gourmand anticipates a scrumptious feast. Yet when the computer was turned off, I despised myself for being so aroused while looking at pictures of young children whose lives had been destroyed thanks to their unwilling participation.[...]

The most important thing I've discovered in the 15 months since my arrest isn't the why, but rather what can be done to change the preconceptions and misconceptions that society has when it comes to pedophiles. Most people hear that word and think of the Jerry Sanduskys and abusive Catholic priests of the world. Fewer people think about the millions who grapple with sexual feelings on which they can never act. When someone hears the word “pedophile”, they immediately think of a child molester. Yet the majority of pedophiles do not molest, but instead spend hours looking at child pornography. And as those numbers grow, so does the number of child victims.

I am not advocating the cross-generational lifestyle. In fact, there is never an instance when an adult should engage in sexual behavior with a child. But until we as a society learn that help for those who view child pornography is a far better alternative to incarceration, we are doomed to see the continued proliferation of this problem. Scientists don’t know for certain if there is a correlation between viewing child pornography and offending against children. Wouldn't it be nice to get pedophiles help before we find out for certain? [...]

How many millions of pedophiles throughout the world aren't as lucky as I? How many will never seek help, too scared of the legal and social consequences? How many will continue to create the demand that fuels a malicious child pornography market? Is locking them away for a while the answer? Will the day ever come when we, as a society, reach out and offer them the help they so desperately need?

What Can Be Done About Pedophilia?

The Atlantic    To accompany todays’s first-person essay from David Goldberg, "I, Pedophile," I asked James Cantor, Ph.D., an international expert on pedophilia, to answer some common questions. Dr. Cantor is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and the editor-in-chief of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. (We have known each other for about 7 years through our common academic interests.)

How is pedophilia usually defined?

Pedophilia is the sexual preference for or a strong sexual interest in children. The term usually refers only to sexual preference for/interest in prepubescent or early pubescent children.

Sometimes people like David Goldberg, the author of the essay, are seen or referred to as "gold star pedophiles" or "good pedophiles." Can you explain what those seemingly incongruous terms mean?

It is extremely important not to confuse pedophilia—meaning the sexual interest in children—with actual child molestation. Not every person who experiences sexual attractions to children acts on those attractions. People who are pedophilic but who work to remain celibate their entire lives are being increasingly recognized as needing and deserving all the support society can give them.

What do you think David means when he refers to people being "too scared of the legal and social consequences" to seek help?

Many jurisdictions have passed mandatory reporting regulations for psychologists and other health care providers. Consequently, when someone who thinks he might be a pedophile comes in for counseling or therapy, the psychologist may be compelled by law to report the person to the authorities. That, of course, can lead to loss of the person’s job, family, and everything else. So, these people have simply stopped coming in at all, and instead of getting help to them, we now have pedophiles circulating in society receiving no support at all. [...]

Is it reasonable to be afraid that, if we recognize pedophilia as a sexual orientation, we will have to consider it socially acceptable?

It is reasonable for questions of social acceptability to be directed at behaviors. People are responsible for their behaviors, not their thoughts or sexual attractions. For example, we very readily acknowledge that a typical heterosexual man will, while just walking down the street, find some women sexually attractive. We would not, however, conclude it is socially acceptable for him to coerce any of those women into sex. Thinking of pedophilia as an innate characteristic that a person did not choose and cannot change can go a very long way in helping society come to a rational response to the problem—one that can help prevent molestation of children.

Can someone be cured of pedophilic desires? For example, could a pedophile through treatment go on to have either no sexual desire or a fundamentally different kind of sexual orientation?

The best treatments we have available for pedophiles help them develop the skills they need to live a healthy, offense-free life and, in some cases, to block their sex drives (if they feel it would help them). We have not yet found a way to convert pedophiles into non-pedophiles that are any more effective than the many failed attempts to convert gay men and lesbians into heterosexuals. [...]

My greatest hope is less about treatment, however, and more about prevention. Despite the fact that many people imagine sex offenders to be insatiable predators or ticking time bombs, only 10−15 percent of sex offenders commit new offenses. I believe we can prevent a much greater number of victims if we put greater energies into early detection and provide support before the first offense occurs, rather than relying only on stronger and stronger punishments after the fact.

The Pedophile Test - Is the Abel test a valid indicator of sexual interest in children?

The Atlantic

Dr. Gene G. Abel, one of America’s foremost researchers on child molestation, has cultivated an aura of eccentric brilliance. His hair, a tangle of white curls, forks into ample sideburns. He favors loud ties, suspenders, and frumpy little one-liners. “You know,” he said recently, sitting in his Atlanta office, “I’m much more handsome than I appear.”

At 76, Abel has devoted the majority of his psychiatric career to the minds of those whom many consider the least redeemable. He has interviewed thousands of child molesters and run federally funded research projects on how to identify them. He has taught at Columbia and Emory Universities, authored two books and more than 100 articles in scientific journals on child molestation, and testified before the United States Sentencing Commission on the subject of child pornography. But he is best known for the Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest, a test he has refined over the last two decades. When people are accused of sexually abusing children, this computerized test can help to decide their fates—in decisions about probation and parole, in custody battles, and even in criminal trials.

Mental-health professionals often spend hours interviewing convicted and alleged child molesters and other sex offenders, but they also rely on measurement tools to gather psychological information that a patient might not want to share: Does he have an innate attraction to children? Is it an exclusive attraction or is he also attracted to adults? Does he have other problematic sexual interests that must also be addressed in therapy?

To answer these questions, clinicians have used a variety of tools, including the polygraph, as well as the penile plethysmograph, a device attached directly to the penis that measures arousal. Both of those tests are invasive and hard to administer; taking the Abel Assessment simply involves answering a questionnaire and viewing a series of pictures on a computer screen. With the information it provides in the form of percentages and graphs, clinicians can make more informed decisions about the best course of treatment. Over the last 20 years, Abel estimates his assessment has been administered more than 170,000 times.[...]

From Abel’s writings in scientific journals, Rich learned that the test is based on a theory called “visual reaction time.” There are other psychological tests that measure how fast a subject responds to stimuli, including studies of “implicit associations” related to gender and race, but Abel developed his own system independently. He has never published exactly what his assessment measures—and he claims the methodology is more “complex” than the descriptions his company has provided publicly—but at its most basic level, it records how long the subject looks at each image. The test, Abel has written, “assumes that the longer a subject focuses on a slide…the greater the sexual interest in the slide's content.” The implication is that if you linger on images of children, you are more likely to register as having a “sexual interest” in them. [...]

Some psychologists argue that since the test has not been rigorously validated, it should not be used at all. Others, including Abel himself, say the test should be used as part of larger, more comprehensive evaluations of people convicted of sex offenses (and in some cases merely accused of them). The stakes are high; a poorly designed test, coupled with overzealous clinicians and trusting judges, would be a recipe for railroading innocent people into being judged as high-risk pedophiles (this certainly worries Rich). At the same time, if the test can be easily beaten by actual pedophiles, who study how to control the length of time they linger on each image, then it could put children at risk.

Another issue is that not everyone who has a sexual attraction to children acts on it. There are online support groups for people who pride themselves on restraining their sexual attraction to children. (One is called Virtuous Pedophiles, and has a manifesto which reads, “We do not choose to be attracted to children, and we cannot make that attraction go away.”) Some researchers believe these groups can actually help prevent sex crimes; the University of Toronto psychiatrist James Cantor has called such groups a “potential pressure valve.” Abel himself has found that it is quite normal for adult heterosexual men to be attracted to adolescents. In light of these discoveries, the idea of making decisions about people based on their thoughts, rather than actions proven in an adversarial court system, gives many psychologists and lawyers pause.[...]

Part of the reason the assessment cannot be relied on too heavily, Abel said, is that there is no way to avoid false negatives and false positives (a common issue with most psychological tests, given the complexity of the human brain). Nine percent of men who have not sexually abused a child show up—falsely—as having done so, according to Abel. [...]

Abel is now in the midst of expanding his business with another proprietary testing tool, The Diana Screen, which is marketed to non-clinicians with the purpose of preventing molestation. It has been tested in pilot projects with The Episcopal Church Pension Fund and The Boys and Girls Clubs of America. It is supposed to be able to help organizations determine whether a job applicant might pose a “sexual risk to children.” Abel’s company markets it to churches, summer camps, schools, and foster care agencies, and it is already used by juvenile detention and residential treatment centers.

When applicants take The Diana Screen, there are no pictures—only a lengthy questionnaire—so it is easier to administer than the Abel Assessment. The responses are measured against a data pool, as well as information from professional literature and the FBI. Abel’s company tells clients that they should not deny someone a job solely based on their failure on the screen, and that the result “should be used as one part of the organization's overall decision-making process.”

The warning is not enough for some psychologists, who worry that people will be denied jobs based solely on the results of the screen, even when they may in fact pose no threat. Others worry the test will, as psychologist Anna Salter put it, give organizations a “false sense of security.”

Abel takes the flak in stride, he told me, because his goal is to stop a tragedy he feels society at large does not address with enough frankness. He views his life’s work as an effort to show Americans that they need to be more proactive about preventing child sexual abuse, noting just how wrong the prevalent stereotypes about strangers have tended to be. “Child molesters are your neighbors and people you know,” he said as we sat in his office that afternoon. “They’re hiding in plain sight.” Whatever the flaws of the Abel Assessment, he argued, the result of not having such tools—and failing to prevent the sexual abuse of children—would be far worse. “This is not a perfect test,” he told me. “There are no perfect tests.”

Oregon allowing 15-year-olds to get state-subsidized sex-change operations - without parental consent

Fox News

The list of things 15-year-olds are not legally allowed to do in Oregon is long: Drive, smoke, donate blood, get a tattoo -- even go to a tanning bed. 

But, under a first-in-the-nation policy quietly enacted in January that many parents are only now finding out about, 15-year-olds are now allowed to get a sex-change operation. Many residents are stunned to learn they can do it without parental notification -- and the state will even pay for it through its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.[...]

Gender dysphoria is classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental disorder in which a person identifies as the sex opposite of his or her birth. It is rare, affecting one out of every 20,000 males and one out of every 50,000 females. 

According to a 2008 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, "most children with gender dysphoria will not remain gender dysphoric after puberty." 

Dr. Paul McHugh, who led the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Department and still practices, said Oregon's policy amounts to child abuse. "We have a very radical and even mutilating treatment being offered to children without any evidence that the long-term outcome of this would be good," McHugh said. 

Dr. Jack Drescher, a member of the APA who worked on the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, says treatment for gender dysphoria has received a lot more attention in recent years. He said this year New York changed its policy to cover cross-sex hormone drugs and sex-reassignment surgery for Medicaid recipients who are at least 18 years old. He thinks Oregon is offering the treatment too early. [...]

But Dr. McHugh says a sex-change operation, especially for young people with gender dysphoria, is never appropriate.

"We can help them if we begin to explore with them and their families what they're fearing about development, what they're fearing about being a young boy, a young adolescent appropriate to themselves."

Esther Perel: Rethinking infidelity ... a talk for anyone who has ever loved

Discusses the meaning of infidelity - even for happily married couples - and the motivation in modern times for an affair when marriage is defined as based on love and trust - and the psychological devastation it causes. Her points clearly apply also to divorce - especially the idea of not being in pain in a marriage but rather "I can do better" I can recapture the excitement that has been lost" - with someone else. [see http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/fashion/Sex-Esther-Perel-Couples-Therapy.html?_r=0]

Basically explains Sanhedrin (57a): Rab Judah said in Rab's name: A man once conceived a passion for a certain woman,3 and his heart was consumed by his burning desire [his life being endangered thereby]. When the doctors were consulted, they said, ‘His only cure is that she shall submit.’ Thereupon the Sages said: ‘Let him die rather than that she should yield.’ Then [said the doctors]; ‘let her stand nude before him;’ [they answered] ‘sooner let him die’. ‘Then’, said the doctors, ‘let her converse with him from behind a fence’. ‘Let him die,’ the Sages replied ‘rather than she should converse with him from behind a fence.’ Now R. Jacob b. Idi and R. Samuel b. Nahmani dispute therein. One said that she was a married woman; the other that she was unmarried. Now, this is intelligible on the view, that she was a married woman, but on the latter, that she was unmarried, why such severity? — R. Papa said: Because of the disgrace to her family. R. Aha the son of R. Ika said: That the daughters of Israel may not be immorally dissolute. Then why not marry her? — Marriage would not assuage his passion, even as R. Isaac said: Since the destruction of the Temple, sexual pleasure has been taken [from those who practise it lawfully] and given to sinners, as it is written. Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Allan Katz - How Children raise their Parents

Guest post by Allan Katz

In Gen 18:19 God explains why Abraham was entitled to a role in the Divine conduct of the world. It was because of what he would teach his children, and who they would become - compassionate, shy and generous. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot says, having a good eye, being of humble spirit and having an undemanding soul (focused on the spiritual) makes one a disciple of Abraham and having the opposite traits makes one a disciple of the evil Bilaam. From this we see that educating children should impact on the character and traits of the child and their actions should be an expression of their deeper selves and values.

There is discussion as to the legal potency and the weight of mitzvoth – commandments performed by children who have not reached the age of 12 for girls and 13 for boys. It is for sure a logical and moral responsibility for parents to educate their children. The question is whether we consider the mitzvah of chinuch, becoming educated an obligation of the son and the father is there to support the child and facilitate the performance of the commandments or is it the obligation of the father to make sure that the child does the mitzvoth. Where the obligation is on the son, the mitzvah has legal weight and potency to the extent that the son can act on behalf of someone else and enable them to fulfill the mitzvah. Where the obligation is on the father, the son's actions don't have the same weight and potency.

The philosophical difference can be learned from the following story. John Souza was giving his daughter and nephews a tour of Hawaii. They stood in a parking lot when John noticed that most probably one of his nephews had opened his door a bit too enthusiastically and had made a deep dent into the door of an expensive and newish car. For a moment he thought he could get the kids into the car, drive away and no one would be the wiser. Then a similar scene which would take place 10 years later flashed through his mind. The scenario was of his nephews and daughter, having damaged a vehicle in a car park driving away to avoid the consequences of their actions, laughing and saying – we totally got away with that. It was in that moment he realized that in order to increase the likelihood of these impressionable youth taking responsibility for their actions in the future he had to take some responsibility for his nephew’s actions and could guide him through the process of reparation and being accountable. He decided not to tell the family of what happened because in his family, so often when a child makes a mistake it seems that each adult must take a turn giving the child feedback (some not always constructive). This can be overwhelming and confusing to a child. So in a very discreet way he spoke to his nephew careful be non-judgmental, but supportive. He explained he was there to help him take responsibility for his actions and engage in the moral act of reparation. His nephew said he would write a note, leaving a telephone number, apologizing for the damage and saying the damage would be repaired. When the car owner called, John explained his intention to help the kid take responsibility for his actions. The owner was not so happy about his car. Later he called to say that a friend who had heard of the story was so impressed of how he was helping his nephew take responsibility that he got the story published in the newspaper. Then John shared the newspaper story with the family, who responded with love and admiration that the boy had acted with so much integrity.

From experiences like this and many years of parenting and being a family therapist John Souza concludes that while we certainly raise our kids , kids are equally responsible for raising us and teaching us. If we see our parenting as being obligated to get the kids to comply with our demands and do the mitzvoth, we are less likely to be aware of ourselves and to focus on our contribution to the educational mix. But if we see the 'mitzvah of chinuch ' as an obligation to do the commandments = mitzvoth that rests also on the child we are more likely to be aware of ourselves and how we contribute to the parent-child dynamic and educational mix. We understand that education is not motivating a child to be compliant and to do the mitzvoth, but creating an environment where the child is inspired and is able to motivate himself. Instead of ' doing to a child' , leading with power - making him' wanna do what he is told by using assertive language ,rewards, praise and consequences , we can ' work with ' the child, leading with greatness of character , helping him reflect and make meaning of his obligations. In this way the parent and child can focus on the character traits and values underlying the mitzvoth and thus support the autonomy of the child so he feels self-directed in the way he conducts his religious life. The mitzvoth were given to refine ourselves .So the mitzvah of chinuch , educating a child , setting an example etc are not only necessary for the child's education but crucial for our own personal growth. If we set an example just for the kids, when they leave the home or are not around we will revert old behaviors and lower standards. If we become aware of ourselves in raising our kids, our kids will play a part in ' raising' us too.

Joshua in our Parasha was given the power of a king –give him some of your honor= hod and the ability to influence as a teacher –place your hand on him , giving him the responsibility to give over the religious tradition. We don't pray for power of a ' policeman ' but we pray that our judges and counselors will be restored as first. By being the ' guide by the side' we can not only raise our kids, but together with them we can raise ourselves.

The Myth of Big, Bad Gluten

update - added material about Grain Brain and  Wheat Belly at end

NY Times  As many as one in three Americans tries to avoid gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Gluten-free menus, gluten-free labels and gluten-free guests at summer dinners have proliferated.

Some of the anti-glutenists argue that we haven’t eaten wheat for long enough to adapt to it as a species. Agriculture began just 12,000 years ago, not enough time for our bodies, which evolved over millions of years, primarily in Africa, to adjust. According to this theory, we’re intrinsically hunter-gatherers, not bread-eaters. If exposed to gluten, some of us will develop celiac disease or gluten intolerance, or we’ll simply feel lousy.

Most of these assertions, however, are contradicted by significant evidence, and distract us from our actual problem: an immune system that has become overly sensitive. [...]

Milk-producing animals were first domesticated about the same time as wheat in the Middle East. As the custom of dairying spread, so did lactase persistence. What surprises scientists today, though, is just how recently, and how completely, that trait has spread in some populations. Few Scandinavian hunter-gatherers living 5,400 years ago had lactase persistence genes, for example. Today, most Scandinavians do.

Here’s the lesson: Adaptation to a new food stuff can occur quickly — in a few millenniums in this case. So if it happened with milk, why not with wheat? [...]

Dr. Barreiro, who’s at the University of Montreal, has observed this pattern in many genes associated with autoimmune disorders. They’ve become more common in recent millenniums, not less. As population density increased with farming, and as settled living and animal domestication intensified exposure to pathogens, these genes, which amp up aspects of the immune response, helped people survive, he thinks.

In essence, humanity’s growing filth selected for genes that increase the risk of autoimmune disease, because those genes helped defend against deadly pathogens. Our own pestilence has shaped our genome.[...]

So the real mystery of celiac disease is what breaks that tolerance, and whatever that agent is, why has it become more common in recent decades?

An important clue comes from the fact that other disorders of immune dysfunction have also increased. We’re more sensitive to pollens (hay fever), our own microbes (inflammatory bowel disease) and our own tissues (multiple sclerosis).

Perhaps the sugary, greasy Western diet — increasingly recognized as pro-inflammatory — is partly responsible. Maybe shifts in our intestinal microbial communities, driven by antibiotics and hygiene, have contributed. Whatever the eventual answer, just-so stories about what we evolved eating, and what that means, blind us to this bigger, and really much more worrisome, problem: The modern immune system appears to have gone on the fritz.

Maybe we should stop asking what’s wrong with wheat, and begin asking what’s wrong with us.

Dr David Katz in The Atlantic

Dr. David Katz is the founding director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center. He is an epidemiologist who has published two editions of a nutrition textbook for healthcare professionals called Nutrition in Clinical Practice. The third edition, nearing publication, will have nearly 10,000 citations. He is also the author of the nutrition book Disease Proof: The remarkable truth about what makes us well. Like Perlmutter, he also cites this era as a gold-standard. Apart from that—and a first name and medical degree—the two have little else in common.

“I find the whole thing a little bit sad, to be honest with you,” Katz told me. “In several ways. Beginning with the fact that I actually like Dr. Perlmutter. He does some really interesting and innovative work in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. He’s cutting edge and is doing stuff that’s a little bit out there. But he generally does this carefully and has actually provided some useful guidance we’ve applied in my own clinic; and I have a longstanding relationship with him—or at least his clinic—and we’ve corresponded and I generally think very highly of him. So I find it sad to be in a position to say that I think so much of his book is a whole bunch of nonsense.”

Katz paused.

“Now, he’s absolutely right that we eat too much sugar and white bread. The rest of the story, though, is one just completely made up to support a hypothesis. And that’s not a good way to do science.”

This launches the discussion of what science is—the critical point that confronts every mainstream media health and science writer. Most recently and famously we have heard about it in criticism of the works of Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer (outside of the latter’s self-plagiarism debacle). The law of good science is that you can’t say “I’ve got an idea and I’m going to fall in love with it and selectively cite evidence to support it.”

“I also find it sad that because his book is filled with a whole bunch of nonsense, that’s why it’s a bestseller; that’s why we’re talking."

 

“You’re only being a good scientist,” Katz said, “if you say, ‘I’m going to try to read the literature in as unbiased a manner as I possibly can, see where it leads me, and then offer the advice that I have based on that view from an altitude.’ I don’t see that going on here, and again, I think it’s kind of sad because I think the public is being misled.”

“I also find it sad that because his book is filled with a whole bunch of nonsense, that’s why it’s a bestseller; that’s why we’re talking. Because that’s how you get on the bestseller list. You promise the moon and stars, you say everything you heard before was wrong, and you blame everything on one thing. You get a scapegoat; it’s classic. Atkins made a fortune with that formula. We’ve got Rob Lustig saying it’s all fructose; we’ve got T. Colin Campbell [author of The China Study, a formerly bestselling book] saying it’s all animal food; we now have Perlmutter saying it’s all grain. There’s either a scapegoat or a silver bullet in almost every bestselling diet book.”

The recurring formula is apparent: Tell readers it’s not their fault. Blame an agency; typically the pharmaceutical industry or U.S. government, but also possibly the medical establishment. Alluding to the conspiracy vaguely will suffice. Offer a simple solution. Cite science and mainstream research when applicable; demonize it when it is not.

“It makes me sad that somebody like you is going to reach out to me, so you can get what I’d like to think are sensible comments about a silly book. If you write a sensible book, which I did—it’s called Disease Proof , and it’s about what it really takes to be healthy, brain and body—nobody wants to talk about that. It has much less sex appeal. The whole thing is sad.”

Negative reviews of Grain Brain and Wheat Belly -
http://www.forksoverknives.com/the-smoke-and-mirrors-behind-wheat-belly-and-grain-brain/ 

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/Misleading-and-sensationalist-Grain-Brain-book-distorts-science-and-confuses-public-with-advice-to-avoid-grains-say-critics 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/this-is-your-brain-on-gluten/282550/

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/03/diet_fads_are_destroying_us_paleo_gluten_free_and_the_lies_we_tell_ourselves_partner/

Disney to Remove a Statue of Bill Cosby From Its Hollywood Theme Park

Time Magazine

Businesses are distancing themselves from Cosby after court documents revealed he bought drugs to give to women before sex

Disney will remove a statue of Bill Cosby from its Hollywood Studios theme park, a spokeswoman for the company said Tuesday, following revelations through court documents that support multiple allegations that the veteran comedian drugged multiple women before sexually assaulting them.[..]

Several companies and businesses are now trying to distance themselves from Cosby, following the release of documents showing that he admitted, during a sworn testimony in 2005, to buying Quaalude, a powerful sedative, with the intention of giving it to women before having sex with them. [...]

A Day in the Life of Lipa Schmeltzer, Ex-Ultra-Orthodox Celebrity

Tablet Magazine

“You can never stop wearing masks,” said Lipa Schmeltzer, eyes on everything but the road, “you can only choose what mask you want to wear.” A few hours into a recent day, Schmeltzer had taken off his entertainer mask—through which he constantly posed and smiled and shouted, to make others laugh—and transformed into a proud Columbia University student. (“I never even heard of the Ivy Leagues!” he said.) His love of “secular knowledge” burst forth like a broken dam. Here was Schmeltzer, quoting an important essay about the nature of identity. “That’s from an essay I’m reading, by Wendy Doniger,” he said, referring to her essay “Many Masks, Many Selves.” “I love the way she writes.”

The idea was to capture a typical day in the life of the most recognizable Orthodox Jewish singer in the world, a man whose “Mizrach” music video garnered more than 1.4 million views on YouTube, a Jewish figure who appeals to all types of Jews, regardless of gender, affiliation, belief, or politics. Raised ultra-Orthodox in the Skverer sect, Schmeltzer quietly left his community in 2010, when he moved from New Square to Airmont, New York. He remained Orthodox and observant but no longer follows the strict rules of the sect he grew up in, especially in regard to secular studies and interactions with women and non-Jews, among other lifestyle choices. Now at the end of his second semester at Columbia University—secular higher education remains a rare occurrence for Skverer Hasidim—he was embarking on a new stage of his already storied life, exploring the boundaries and capabilities of a fluid religious identity. [...]