The Psychology of...

Para los que no me conocen, soy psicólogo provisional en la provincia Canadiense de Alberta. Trabajo con niños en la escuela primaria, dando consejos y apoyo para tratar las condiciones mentales como la ansiedad, la depresión, y conflicto familiar entre otros. Además de intervenciones dirigidas al individuo, doy lo que llamamos programación universal, o sea, lecciones dirigidas a la población escolar entera que se enfocan en asuntos y temas globales. Esto para evitar y prevenir los problemas de la salud mental (yo prefiero decir 'salud cerebral' pero para los propósitos de este blog sigo con el término más conocido y usado). La idea es que mientras hay muchos estudiantes que necesitan tratamiento directo y específico, todos se benefician de los principios básicos del campo de la psicología. El énfasis de este año en mis escuelas ha sido el concepto de "florecer", un constructo desarrollado por el Dr. Martin Seligman, ex-presidente de la American Psychological Ass...

This is part II of my critique of the Netflix series '13 Reasons Why'. For Part I click here In today's post I wish to share what positive can be gleaned from this polarizing, dark teen drama. Let's get right into it. What you SHOULD learn from '13 Reasons Why' That 'rape culture' is real and we are bystanders to the objectification and violation of women and girls . Hannah Baker places the blame of her death on a number of her schoolmates who each played their role in her feeling ostracized and rejected, but if you have watched the show you know that there is one true villain in the equation. Hannah is viciously sexually assaulted in what most people would agree is the second most disturbing scene in the series. She is overpowered and abused by someone she knows in the way that most people who imagine sexual violence. Pretty text book really. Except that in this series we also get to see the cumulative effects of those around her who, while not ...

I heard a lot of buzz around this new show on Netflix called '13 Reasons Why' which was about a teenage girl who sent tapes to kids in her high school explaining why she had killed herself. My first impression was that this was going to be teenage drama trash and I had no interest in watching it. I was certain that the critics were bang on with their assessment that this was a terrible show for teens and that it could be a contributing factor to the glamorization and misunderstanding of suicide that I have seen, having worked in a high school with a history of such tragedy. The hub-bub was growing beyond your regular teen drama however, and as people started asking my take on the show, I began considering watching the series so that I could give an honest opinion. Throw in the fact that my wife was also curious and she and I rarely find a show that piques both our interests, and we had enough reasons to watch '13 Reasons' every night after our kids were in bed. So l...