Dr. James Tobin Ph.D. - Psychologist
Articles
WELCOME TO DR. TOBIN’S ARTICLES
Dr. Tobin regularly publishes blog articles and posts information and writings by other authors on various issues including child development and adolescence, parenting, romantic love, men and masculinity, the psychotherapy process, the training and supervision of psychologists, sexual compulsivity and addiction, and organizational culture and change. If there is a topic you would like Dr. Tobin to feature, please email him directly at jt@jamestobinphd.com.
The Neurobiology of Fate
Listen to the entire article: There is an emerging body of scientific research indicating that the human brain is impacted by social experience in ways we did not realize previously. In the last several decades we learned that the brain is malleable, a...
Guilt: An Untapped Resource for Change
Listen to the entire article: As a psychotherapist, guilt is one of the most common emotional experiences my patients grapple with. Guilt is commonly viewed as the feeling that emerges when you’ve done something wrong, when you’ve made a mistake...
The World One Sees and the Seer Who Sees It
Listen to the entire article: Seeing things as they are in an essential concept in Buddhist philosophy and psychology, as well as Freudian theory. So much emotional turmoil, what is known as suffering in Buddhism, is due to the tendency to withdraw from...
Beyond Denial: “Mystification”
Listen to the entire article: Denial is typically understood as a psychological defense in which the reality of a person or situation is intolerable for some reason, cannot be consciously acknowledged, and so is forced into areas of the mind where it remains...
The Architecture of a Relationship with a Narcissist in 5 Phases
Listen to the entire article: Adults who suffer from narcissistic problems were originally injured early in their development. All infants and young children need to be responded to empathically by their caregivers, mirrored and reflected by their...
The Psychological Capacity of Inflexion
Listen to the entire article: In a prior presentation, I described the destructive sado-masochistic relationship depicted in the 1986 film “9 ½ Weeks” between John, a Wall street investment banker played by Mickey Rourke, and Elizabeth, a...
Unconscious Relational Templates in the Film 9/1 Weeks
Listen to the entire article: In the 1986 film “9 ½ Weeks” directed by Adrian Lyne, Mickey Rourke plays John, an investment banker on Wall Street who falls into a highly erotic relationship with Elizabeth, a beautiful art gallery executive played...
Fatal Attraction: Unconscious Recruitment and Enactment
Listen to the entire article: It is a rather inconvenient truth that what seems to get a romantic relationship going – namely attraction as well as other things like shared interests and similar backgrounds – is not really what draws two people together....