Psychology & Living

The good thing about the Michael Jackson trial is that it's currently the top headline news. Better this than another 9/11, a school shooting or thousands of soldiers killed in Iraq at one time. The bad thing about the Michael Jackson trial is that it's a sideshow....

Q: What can meditation do for me? A: People who meditate are generally trying to reduce stress. Reducing stress is fine. However, there's nothing mystical about meditation that can help you. Letting your mind stop can be useful, but it also can be an indication that...

What, the first question must be, is the distinguishing essence of heroism?

Q: What do you think of the old saying, "It takes one to know one"? A: It's a package deal. By package deal I mean the lumping of a true concept with a false one. The evil of a package deal is that the truthful part of the statement motivates one to accept the full...

Q: What's more important, being nice or being self-interested? A: It's good to be nice. Being nice is more often in one's self-interest than not. For example: Are you more willing to spend your money at a business who treats its customers nicely or who treats its...

After three out of six rotations in the Men's All-around Olympic Gymnastics, American gymnast Paul Hamm was ranked first place in the standings. His next event was the vault. Hamm's vault was to be a Tsukahara--named after Japanese gymnast Mitsuo Tsukahara. It was...

When stuck with the question, "What should I do?" don't stay stuck. Don't fall prey to the temptation to blindly asking someone else what you should do. Instead, ask yourself -- and answer -- the following questions: What are my options in this situation? (If there is...

In recent decades, the field of psychology made a mistake. That mistake was treating self-esteem as the root of mental health. The root of mental health is actually personal responsibility. Personal responsibility refers to a core conviction that you are in the...

The basic rule to follow in a process of identification is to choose the career in which you will spend the most time doing the activity you love to do the most.

A reader writes in, taking issue with Dr. Hurd's contention that forgiving the unforgivable (e.g. snipers, drunk driving) is neither noble nor healthy: Forgiving someone who committed a crime against you after they have served their sentence and you have had time to...

Ultimately, sporting events like football’s Super Bowl offer a microcosmic vision of what “real life” could, and should, be like.

Q: Why do men seem to enjoy viewing women naked (e.g., in photos, real life, etc.) much more than women seem to enjoy looking at naked men? It seems men are much more "turned on" romantically/sexually by the visual aspects of the opposite sex, than the other way...

At George Mason University, they are giving a “roast” — that peculiarly American combination of praise and ridicule — to Walter Williams, professor of economics and columnist extraordinaire. Although I cannot be there, let me participate vicariously with a few observations about Walter.

Q: I know people who do more than I do yet don't seem to get overwhelmed. I feel overwhelmed most of the time, yet I do less than these people. What's my problem? A: It's not how much you do; it's how you view what you do that determines your overall emotional state...

Q: How can I overcome the problem of wanting everybody to like me? A: Imagine for a moment that you were liked by everyone. This would most certainly mean that you're doing something wrong. Why? Because it would be impossible to please everyone. People, first of all,...

In the healthiest meaning of love and sex, both involve “compromise,” but not of the kind inherent in any moral code of sacrifice or selflessness.

Let us take a closer look at what such admiration consist of by grasping the concept of psychological visibility. Every person holds fundamental ideas about himself. Take Tom who thinks "It's important to make healthy, honest choices in my life. I want to feel proud...

In a world of life-and-death conflicts, spectator sports give us a “time-out”–an opportunity to relax and celebrate human skill, dedication, and success in a spirit of simple joy.

What is sex? I can picture asking an adolescent boy this question and he’d say “You don’t know…?!”

Q: Dr. Hurd, I sometimes fight feeling low by telling myself, "It could be worse." Then I proceed to name examples of how it could be worse. Is this healthy -- or am I putting neurotic guilt on myself? A: It all depends on the context in which you say it. If you say...

To love a person is selfish because it means that you value that particular person, that he or she makes your life better, that he or she is an intense source of joy–to you.

You must stand tall for moral principles and the dignity of man. Award the Olympics to a country where rights are protected, not to the Butchers of Beijing.

Finding a career to be passionate about is like finding the love of your life.