Bipolar disorder

...ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b are serious and distressing, but the flip side is that they have often been linked with creativity and even genius, though the link is still highly controversial.

Kay Redfield Jamison, who is an author, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and has ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b herself, suggests that perhaps it is not the downs or the ups, but the transition between the two that triggers creative thought.

It is not clear whether everyday mood swings have the same effect, but it is possible that they could be akin to the switch between active thought and subconscious mulling, an important part of the creative process.

Are you… deceptive?

If you are apt to tell a few fibs then you are in very good company.

Pretty much everyone tells lies a lot more often than they care to admit.

In one study, psychologist Robert Feldman of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that in 10 minutes of conversation with a stranger, people told an average of three fibs.

In another study, 92 per cent of students admitted they had lied to their partner, which raises the question of whether the rest were simply fibbing to the research team.

Psychologists have also shown that men lie most often to make themselves look better, whereas women are more likely to lie to make someone else feel good.

Lying is an important part of routine social interactions.

People with autism find it very difficult to lie, and with complete honesty, our social systems would break do...

Read more...