Author Stan Goldberg

In Part I of this series, I wrote our mind’s creation of memories is unreliable since it has a hidden agenda.  In Part II I’ll offer reasons why we should trust memories only a little more than we do a...

I was asked if I thought individuals can block memories of traumatic events, and if not, could certain triggers cause these events to resurface. Although the question was about PTSD, I realized it had...

Knowing what destructive thoughts are is one thing. Knowing how to stop them is another. In Part I of this three-part series, I maintained one form of our insane thoughts is the creation of  “what if”...

Sometimes answers to questions come from the strangest places. For example; who would think to look at films to identify the purpose of our insane and destructive thoughts? In Part I of this three-part...

How many days has it been since you replayed a scene in your mind where you said hurtful, revealing or politically incorrect words you wish could have been taken back? Possibly you were diligent in your speech...

We want to be helpful to whose living with cancer, but often we don’t know how to transform compassionate intent into helpful behaviors. I discussed why compassion isn’t sufficient to be helpful in Part I....

We like to think life is on a seamless continuum, moving along, maybe in spurts and stops, but having consistency throughout the years, as does our identity. We're the same person today we were last week and...

We have an inherent desire to be compassionate. In the misery of another person, we see ourselves, if not in the present, than in the past or future. But compassion is not sufficient for helping people living...

Who would think there is anything humorous about Dementia? Most people who experience it or their caregivers wouldn't. But humor and improvisation may be a key element to reducing anxiety and creating joy for...

In part one of this weekly series, I discussed some myths and facts about Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. I stressed the most alarming memory problems have less to do with names and events, and more...

Alzheimer's: it's becoming a less distant illness and something directly touching us. If a friend or relative doesn't have it or had it, it's just a matter of time before someone you know will. Unfortunately,...

This is an interview conducted by Melody Ruth Bromma of MarinScope, the online website for three Marin County Newspapers. The purpose of the interview was to see how early experiences shape present values and...

In Part I of Family Conflict, I presented the idea conflicts often involve looking at the present through our history. In Part II I wrote that “universal” or “enduring” truths are myths-especially when...

In Part I of Family Conflict I presented the idea conflicts often involve looking at the present through our history. There is an amazing similarity in the type of conflicts created by a health crisis and...

Passover was a dreaded holiday for me as a teenager growing up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was a time when my uncle, who thought of himself as a "lay Rabbi," rose at the head of the table and straightened...

In Part 1 of Grief Hierarchy, I presented the idea grief shouldn't be evaluated in terms of whose is greater. In Part 2, I introduced the notion (controversial based on the feedback I received) we don't grieve...

THOUGHT OF THE DAY. In the first installment of this series, I presented the idea grief shouldn't be placed on a hierarchy of importance. I maintained the grief of someone who lost a dog can be as substantial...

Everyone has lost a partner, friend, parent, job, ability, pet, or object that created joy. It is something viewed as irreplaceable by the person experiencing the loss, but often thought trivial by...

THOUGHT OF THE DAY. Each day’s new violence makes people want to retreat into a 1950’s bomb shelter, or buy a home in a gated and guarded community, or hide in a shack in a remote part of the woods. Of...

By Khevin Barnes My surgeon recommended that I have an ultrasound exam every four months for the first two years after my mastectomy. As the date approached for my first quarterly check up I found myself...