BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D. & LOIS B. MORRIS No matter how resilient our personality styles may be, we are all susceptible to the radical stress of a year of social isolation. We humans are social animals. Whether we’re naturally outgoing or reserved, we need to be with each other. Adjusting to constraint is hard […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD Trust is a key weathervane guiding every aspect of our interpersonal world. Just trust me Who is trustworthy and who is not? Who is the one I’m not so sure about, and how do I find out? Am I trustworthy? How often do we say, “Look, I’m going to […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D., & LOIS B. MORRIS “Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention,” said the writer Howard Rheingold. This maxim is a favorite of a theoretical physicist named Michael Goldhaber. He is “the internet prophet you’ve never heard of,” according to New York Times Opinion writer […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD, AND LOIS B. MORRIS How do we know who is trustworthy and who isn’t? That depends on each of us. Trust in a relationship is a two-way street. We need to know how to build trust, to evaluate it, bank it, and share it. Without trust, it is […]
By John M. Oldham, M.D., and Lois B. Morris Does the New Personality Self-Portrait 25 capture a vulnerability to conspiracy theories? Recent studies have targeted a handful of likely personality traits that we can track. Popular U.S. COVID conspiracy theories Honestly, with all the social and political instability of these times, who doesn’t entertain […]
By JOHN M. OLDHAM, M.D. and LOIS B. MORRIS Empathy is a word that crops up a lot this election season. We tie it to the personalities of candidates for public office. We want leaders who can put themselves in our shoes. Who can tune in to what we go through, even without having […]
BY JOHN M. OLDHAM, MD Yes, people with personality disorders can and do make it big, even while suffering deeply. But they don’t always recognize that they can be their own worst enemy. When they’re feeling miserable, they may think it’s because other people are being unreasonable and don’t understand them. They may not […]
