Aside from the Bible, few books over time have stirred up such controversy as one composed from the cell of a German prison.
It is a poorly-written mess, according to literary critics, but the ideas contained within Adolf Hitler's 1925 tome "Mein Kampf" (or My Struggle) sadly would resonate well beyond the book's quality of prose.
Mein Kampf was the manifesto from which all of Hitler's atrocities stemmed, a tinderbox of a book that may have disappeared from the annals of history had the author not actually gone on to carry out the ideas presented in his tirade against all things non-German.
Because he did, however, the notorious book remains banned in some parts of the world, more than 80 years later, and has sparked ongoing debates about literary freedoms.
Hitler passes the time behind bars
Hitler rose through the ranks of Germany's small but powerful National Socialist (Nazi) political party to become its bombastic leader in the early 1920s. Believing that Germany's central Weimar government had let the country be ridiculed by a series of post-World War I punishments handed down by the victorious Allies, the Nazis attempted a coup d'etat in 1923. The famous "Munich Beer Hall Putsch" failed and sent Hitler to jail for high treason.
While imprisoned, Hitler read piles of books on history and philosophy, consolidating his own set of beliefs all the while. He didn't consider putting his political ideas down on paper, however, until his business manager suggested that an autobiography might be a fruitful way to pass the time in prison. At the urging of his manager, Hitler's original title for his work, "Four Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice," was also changed to the more marketable "My Struggle." Hitler did not, in fact, write the book himself, but dictated to his friend Rudolf Hess, who was imprisoned alongside him.
Part autobiography, part political manifesto, the patchwork pages of "Mein Kampf" were put to print in 1925. By that time, Hitler had already been released from prison upon growing pressure from members of the Nazi party.
A gift for the newly-married couple
Despite being repetitive, long-winded and difficult to read, "Mein Kampf" had become a popular read throughout Germany by the late 1920s, disseminating Hitler's main theories to a large audience.
In "Mein Kampf," the future chancellor of the Third Reich goes on at length about his youth and the early days of the Nazi Party, but it was his visions for a Germany of the future that resonated most with its readers.
Chief among his ideas was the absolute, innate superiority of the Germanic race, which Hitler called Aryan, over every group of people. "Mein Kampf" singled out Jews as the source of many of Germany's ills and a threat to Aryan dominance. The Aryans had a duty to restore Germany's former glory and enlarge its territory by winning back the land it had during World War I and gaining new area by expanding into Russia.
"Mein Kampf" gained enormous readership in the early 1930s and once Hitler gained power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, became the de facto Nazi bible. Every newly married couple received a free copy on their wedding day, and every soldier had one included as part of his gear. At the outset of World War II, the book had been translated into 11 languages and sold 5 million copies.
The debate goes on today
"Mein Kampf" was a clear-cut warning to the world of Hitler's intentions for war and genocide, which may have been recognized and prevented had more people read it outside of Germany, some historians say. Publishers in the United States and the U.K. did produce copies in English prior to the War, but were held up by copyright lawsuits by Hitler's publishers.
Since the war, the book has remained a flashpoint of controversy, especially in Germany and the former Axis nations.
Worried over its use as propaganda by neo-Nazi groups, Germany and Austria have banned the possession and selling of "Mein Kampf" outright, while some countries restrict its possession to people using the book for academic purposes only. Opponents of the ban argue that the book is a valuable historical document, and that keeping it unavailable only makes it more desirable to right-wing groups.
The debate over the book's ban has flared up again in Germany in recent months, with some groups calling for an edition carefully annotated by academics to be produced before 2015, when the book's copyright officially expires in Germany and it will become available to anyone in the general public to own and reprint.
[Via Live Science]
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Chronology of Einstein’s Mistakes
1905 Mistake in clock synchronization procedure on which Einstein based special relativity
1905 Failure to consider Michelson-Morley experiment
1905 Mistake in transverse mass of high-speed particles
1905 Multiple mistakes in the mathematics and physics used in calculation of viscosity of liquids, from which Einstein deduced size of molecules
1905 Mistakes in the relationship between thermal radiation and quanta of light
1905 Mistake in the first proof of E=mc²
1906 Mistakes in the second, third, and fourth proofs of E=mc²
1907 Mistake in the synchronization procedure for accelerated clocks
1907 Mistakes in the Principle of Equivalence of gravitation and acceleration
1911 Mistake in the first calculation of the bending of light
1913 Mistake in the first attempt at a theory of general relativity
1914 Mistake in the fifth proof of E=mc²
1915 Mistake in the Einstein-de Haas experiment
1915 Mistakes in several attempts at theories of general relativity
1916 Mistake in the interpretation of Mach’s principle
1917 Mistake in the introduction of the cosmological constant (the “biggest blunder”)
1919 Mistakes in two attempts to modify general relativity
1925 Mistakes and more mistakes in the attempts to formulate a unified theory
1927 Mistakes in discussions with Bohr on quantum uncertainties
1933 Mistakes in interpretation of quantum mechanics (Does God play dice?)
1934 Mistake in the sixth proof of E=mc²
1939 Mistake in the interpretation of the Schwarzschild singularity and gravitational collapse (the “black hole”)
1946 Mistake in the seventh proof of E=mc²
[Via Discover Magazine]
1905 Failure to consider Michelson-Morley experiment
1905 Mistake in transverse mass of high-speed particles
1905 Multiple mistakes in the mathematics and physics used in calculation of viscosity of liquids, from which Einstein deduced size of molecules
1905 Mistakes in the relationship between thermal radiation and quanta of light
1905 Mistake in the first proof of E=mc²
1906 Mistakes in the second, third, and fourth proofs of E=mc²
1907 Mistake in the synchronization procedure for accelerated clocks
1907 Mistakes in the Principle of Equivalence of gravitation and acceleration
1911 Mistake in the first calculation of the bending of light
1913 Mistake in the first attempt at a theory of general relativity
1914 Mistake in the fifth proof of E=mc²
1915 Mistake in the Einstein-de Haas experiment
1915 Mistakes in several attempts at theories of general relativity
1916 Mistake in the interpretation of Mach’s principle
1917 Mistake in the introduction of the cosmological constant (the “biggest blunder”)
1919 Mistakes in two attempts to modify general relativity
1925 Mistakes and more mistakes in the attempts to formulate a unified theory
1927 Mistakes in discussions with Bohr on quantum uncertainties
1933 Mistakes in interpretation of quantum mechanics (Does God play dice?)
1934 Mistake in the sixth proof of E=mc²
1939 Mistake in the interpretation of the Schwarzschild singularity and gravitational collapse (the “black hole”)
1946 Mistake in the seventh proof of E=mc²
[Via Discover Magazine]
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Three Children Left Home Alone as Mother 'Honeymoons'
A mature college student left her three children at home for two weeks while she went on her honeymoon, her neighbours claimed.
Police found the back door of the family home in Leeds open on Saturday evening. The three children were under a bed.
Simten Sadiq, 33, was seen carrying a balloon with the words “Just Married” on it days before she disappeared, neighbours said.
She had recently had an Islamic ceremony with an Austrian man.
Detectives are trying to establish what arrangements were made for the children, aged four, six and 11, and whether they were on their own for long periods, including overnight.
They have been taken into protective custody. Officers are working with social services. All three were understood to have been fed throughout.
Police said they did not appear to have any injuries and were fit and well. Police found the children aged five, six and eleven, under a bed after they were alerted by neighbours.
Their father Parvez Sadiq, 43, a private hire taxi driver, who lives half a mile away, said he only became aware of what had happened when social workers told him.
Mr Sadiq met her in her native Turkey when she was 17, they married and she moved to the UK in 1992 after being granted a visa.
At first she could not speak any English, but enrolled at college initially to study a GCSE in Maths.
In the summer of 2006 she moved out of the matrimonial home, leaving her four children, including eldest son aged 14, with her husband.
She went on to stay with a student friend after being accepted on a BA degree course in Education Studies at Bradford College.
Mr Sadiq said after completing the first year of the course in June last year, she was granted a council house after returning for the three youngest children.
[Via Telegraph]
Police found the back door of the family home in Leeds open on Saturday evening. The three children were under a bed.
Simten Sadiq, 33, was seen carrying a balloon with the words “Just Married” on it days before she disappeared, neighbours said.
She had recently had an Islamic ceremony with an Austrian man.
Detectives are trying to establish what arrangements were made for the children, aged four, six and 11, and whether they were on their own for long periods, including overnight.
They have been taken into protective custody. Officers are working with social services. All three were understood to have been fed throughout.
Police said they did not appear to have any injuries and were fit and well. Police found the children aged five, six and eleven, under a bed after they were alerted by neighbours.
Their father Parvez Sadiq, 43, a private hire taxi driver, who lives half a mile away, said he only became aware of what had happened when social workers told him.
Mr Sadiq met her in her native Turkey when she was 17, they married and she moved to the UK in 1992 after being granted a visa.
At first she could not speak any English, but enrolled at college initially to study a GCSE in Maths.
In the summer of 2006 she moved out of the matrimonial home, leaving her four children, including eldest son aged 14, with her husband.
She went on to stay with a student friend after being accepted on a BA degree course in Education Studies at Bradford College.
Mr Sadiq said after completing the first year of the course in June last year, she was granted a council house after returning for the three youngest children.
[Via Telegraph]
Doctor, No
A doctor who said he could not help having affairs with his patients was struck off the medical register at his own request yesterday morning. "I have a fundamentally flawed personality which makes me permanently unfit to be in a position of trust as a GP," John Razzak wrote to the General Medical Council. "I have had affairs with patients over which I seem to have no control."
The formal end to 46-year-old Dr Razzak's career in medicine came just five days after Staffordshire GP Keith Bevan was thrown out of the medical profession for a 14-month affair with a farmer's wife, whom he seduced in his surgery while her husband was sitting in the waiting room. "She was avid for sex and her husband was happy to watch the telly," Bevan, 57, told the GMC hearing which concluded that his behaviour "undermines the confidence which the public is entitled to place in members of the medical profession and constitutes a gross abuse of your position."
In July, the GMC ejected Iain MacLeod, a 66-year-old GP who rode around Moffat in Dumfriesshire in a Jaguar with the number plate TSM 1T, which stood for "The Sexiest Man In Town". He was struck off over a 22-year affair with a woman he had been treating for depression which, it was said "contributed to the distress she has suffered over a significant part of her life". In February, Dr Anthony Leeper, 48, who admitted an 11-month sexual relationship with a patient, escaped with a two-year supervision order.
These are just a few of the doctors who have recently got caught. Typically they are middle-aged and male. Research in the US has shown that one-in-10 family doctors has had a sexual relationship with a patient. Having sex with a patient is completely off-limits. Every doctor, certainly in the UK, knows it is a career-ending offence.
Yet, medical students who were asked about whether they would have relationships with their patients, for a study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics this month, were equivocal. If they were a GP on a remote Scottish island and were asked, by a patient they had just about finished treating for a skin condition, to come to dinner, in a way that suggested her interest was more than conversation, what would they do? Nearly half (40%) said they couldn't see the harm.
Many of us might feel sympathetic. What's a doctor to do on a windswept rock where there might be more sheep than potential partners? But no. John Goldie, an Easterhouse GP and senior tutor at the University of Glasgow, who devised the study, is uncompromising. "There is a power imbalance in the relationship, it is not a relationship of equals and it can never be," he says. It is doubtful, he says, that any patient can ever truly give consent to a sexual relationship with her doctor.
This isn't about the sexy registrar with the white coat, gentle hands and impeccable bedside manner. It's not about Carry On Doctor frolics or seductive soap opera GPs. Fiction has frequently woven sex into the life-and-death tapestry of medicine, but the reality features men and women who go to their doctor because of physical and often emotional vulnerability. What they find, from their doctor, is sympathy, care and concern. It can be devastating.
Sigmund Freud noted that many of his female patients fell in love with him. He called it transference. What was happening, he said, was that they were casting him as somebody in their past life, projecting on to him the feelings of love and desire that they had experienced for other men.
"If you help a patient who is having problems, they are so grateful they sort of fall in love with you," says Claire Rayner, president of the Patients Association. "They are not, but they think they are. They transfer all their emotions to the person who has helped them.
"Doctors are attractive figures. They have all this knowledge and they care about you and you get the feeling they care more about you than they do. Getting a crush on them is easy. I did it. It has happened to me that I have been looked after really well and thought: 'Oh you are lovely.' "
It happens most with psychiatrists, gynaecologists and GPs - those doctors who spend most time with patients and are likely to talk over problems beyond the physical. But this is not a one-way street. The doctors most likely to have a sexual relationship with a patient are male, middle-aged and may have problems of their own.
The damage that can be done is clear from the GMC cases, which will only have got that far because they are the most serious. The woman with whom MacLeod had an affair over two decades was being treated for depression. Dr Leeper's affair was with a patient who came to him with anxiety and emotional problems. The woman Bevan seduced had marital problems and wanted him to prescribe Viagra for her husband, a farmer whose livelihood had been badly hit by foot and mouth disease.
In every case, the woman was vulnerable and looking for help. There can be no equal relationship if it is born in the surgery or consulting room, says Dr Goldie. He says there is no way out - asking the patient to switch to another doctor is also unacceptable. "It's a bit of a grey area," he acknowledges, but because the woman was once a patient, transference can have occurred and the power imbalance exists. "There is no evidence that it disappears," he says.
In an age when sexuality and sexual expression rule and when marriages last for ever briefer periods, it may be seen as a hair-shirted hard road for the doctor on the remote Scottish island, if not the rest of the profession. But Dr Goldie takes no prisoners: "With professionalism comes boundaries," he said. He says there is a need for much more education and discussion among doctors to help them deal with the doctor/patient relationship, including asking students their attitudes at the start of their training and, if necessary, attempting to change them. Because, at the end of the day, this is not about sex between a man and a woman, but potential - even if unknowing - exploitation of vulnerability. And as Hippocrates said, the first duty of a doctor is to do no harm.
[Via Guardian]
The formal end to 46-year-old Dr Razzak's career in medicine came just five days after Staffordshire GP Keith Bevan was thrown out of the medical profession for a 14-month affair with a farmer's wife, whom he seduced in his surgery while her husband was sitting in the waiting room. "She was avid for sex and her husband was happy to watch the telly," Bevan, 57, told the GMC hearing which concluded that his behaviour "undermines the confidence which the public is entitled to place in members of the medical profession and constitutes a gross abuse of your position."
In July, the GMC ejected Iain MacLeod, a 66-year-old GP who rode around Moffat in Dumfriesshire in a Jaguar with the number plate TSM 1T, which stood for "The Sexiest Man In Town". He was struck off over a 22-year affair with a woman he had been treating for depression which, it was said "contributed to the distress she has suffered over a significant part of her life". In February, Dr Anthony Leeper, 48, who admitted an 11-month sexual relationship with a patient, escaped with a two-year supervision order.
These are just a few of the doctors who have recently got caught. Typically they are middle-aged and male. Research in the US has shown that one-in-10 family doctors has had a sexual relationship with a patient. Having sex with a patient is completely off-limits. Every doctor, certainly in the UK, knows it is a career-ending offence.
Yet, medical students who were asked about whether they would have relationships with their patients, for a study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics this month, were equivocal. If they were a GP on a remote Scottish island and were asked, by a patient they had just about finished treating for a skin condition, to come to dinner, in a way that suggested her interest was more than conversation, what would they do? Nearly half (40%) said they couldn't see the harm.
Many of us might feel sympathetic. What's a doctor to do on a windswept rock where there might be more sheep than potential partners? But no. John Goldie, an Easterhouse GP and senior tutor at the University of Glasgow, who devised the study, is uncompromising. "There is a power imbalance in the relationship, it is not a relationship of equals and it can never be," he says. It is doubtful, he says, that any patient can ever truly give consent to a sexual relationship with her doctor.
This isn't about the sexy registrar with the white coat, gentle hands and impeccable bedside manner. It's not about Carry On Doctor frolics or seductive soap opera GPs. Fiction has frequently woven sex into the life-and-death tapestry of medicine, but the reality features men and women who go to their doctor because of physical and often emotional vulnerability. What they find, from their doctor, is sympathy, care and concern. It can be devastating.
Sigmund Freud noted that many of his female patients fell in love with him. He called it transference. What was happening, he said, was that they were casting him as somebody in their past life, projecting on to him the feelings of love and desire that they had experienced for other men.
"If you help a patient who is having problems, they are so grateful they sort of fall in love with you," says Claire Rayner, president of the Patients Association. "They are not, but they think they are. They transfer all their emotions to the person who has helped them.
"Doctors are attractive figures. They have all this knowledge and they care about you and you get the feeling they care more about you than they do. Getting a crush on them is easy. I did it. It has happened to me that I have been looked after really well and thought: 'Oh you are lovely.' "
It happens most with psychiatrists, gynaecologists and GPs - those doctors who spend most time with patients and are likely to talk over problems beyond the physical. But this is not a one-way street. The doctors most likely to have a sexual relationship with a patient are male, middle-aged and may have problems of their own.
The damage that can be done is clear from the GMC cases, which will only have got that far because they are the most serious. The woman with whom MacLeod had an affair over two decades was being treated for depression. Dr Leeper's affair was with a patient who came to him with anxiety and emotional problems. The woman Bevan seduced had marital problems and wanted him to prescribe Viagra for her husband, a farmer whose livelihood had been badly hit by foot and mouth disease.
In every case, the woman was vulnerable and looking for help. There can be no equal relationship if it is born in the surgery or consulting room, says Dr Goldie. He says there is no way out - asking the patient to switch to another doctor is also unacceptable. "It's a bit of a grey area," he acknowledges, but because the woman was once a patient, transference can have occurred and the power imbalance exists. "There is no evidence that it disappears," he says.
In an age when sexuality and sexual expression rule and when marriages last for ever briefer periods, it may be seen as a hair-shirted hard road for the doctor on the remote Scottish island, if not the rest of the profession. But Dr Goldie takes no prisoners: "With professionalism comes boundaries," he said. He says there is a need for much more education and discussion among doctors to help them deal with the doctor/patient relationship, including asking students their attitudes at the start of their training and, if necessary, attempting to change them. Because, at the end of the day, this is not about sex between a man and a woman, but potential - even if unknowing - exploitation of vulnerability. And as Hippocrates said, the first duty of a doctor is to do no harm.
[Via Guardian]
When Sex Becomes an Addiction
When actor David Duchovny made headlines for voluntarily entering rehab for sex addiction, fans of the "X-Files" star were left wondering: How can someone become addicted to sex?
It turns out sex addiction, also called compulsive sexual behavior, operates somewhat like a gambling compulsion or alcoholism: It's about devoting your free time to a behavior that you cannot stop, even if you damage relationships or prompt other negative consequences. Examples of addicting sex behaviors include extensively using pornography, having affairs, sleeping with prostitutes, and masturbating excessively, to the point where such behaviors get out of control.
If you think it's just about being horny, think again. For many addicts, sex becomes a way to numb out painful feelings, kill time or stop feeling lonely, said Kelly McDaniel, licensed professional counselor in San Antonio, Texas, and author of "Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex and Relationship Addiction."
"Most people I talk to get to the point where they don't even like sex," said McDaniel, who has no connection to David Duchovny and did not speculate about his specific situation.
Sex addiction is estimated to affect 3 to 6 percent of adults in the U.S., according to the Mayo Clinic, but the American Psychiatric Association has not classified the condition in its diagnostic handbook.
The Internet, providing endless opportunities for porn-watching and cybersex, has fueled a surge in cases of sex addiction, experts say.
"We're seeing it with epidemic proportions now, particularly with regards to cybersex," said Mark Schwartz, psychologist and former director of the Masters and Johnson Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. "There isn't a week that goes by where I don't get two calls" about sex addiction.
Therapists have recently seen more women with the condition in connection with Internet porn, which has become a "gender-neutral" addiction, McDaniel said. Before, female sex addicts generally tended to have affairs or become sex workers.
Experts acknowledge that people who have affairs or use pornography are not necessarily sex addicts. Such pastimes form an addiction when they generate negative consequences for a person's relationships, take over free time and become impossible to quit.
Where does it come from?
About 80 percent of sex addiction cases have sexual abuse or emotional trauma in their backgrounds, said Doug Weiss, therapist and executive director of the Heart to Heart Counseling Center. Schwartz also noted that huge numbers of people coming forward as sex addicts have been abused, assaulted or raped.
"When you have abuse in your background, you're less likely to trust people, [and] you're more likely to turn to something like sex addiction as a manifestation," Schwartz said.
Feelings of neglect as a child -- whether from divorced parents or parents who both worked and didn't spend a lot of time with their kids -- may also lead to sex addiction, Schwartz said.
Research into the neuroscience of sex addiction has not been conclusive, the Mayo Clinic said. Naturally occurring chemicals in the brain such as dopamine and serotonin do contribute to sexual functioning, but it's not clear how they are related to sex addiction. McDaniel said these two chemicals are lower in the brains of children who have suffered abuse, which may explain why some of them use their own bodies -- or, in other cases, food -- to increase dopamine and serotonin levels.
For many people, especially women, sex addiction occurs in tandem with another problem such as an eating disorder, drug or alcohol addiction, McDaniel said.
A lot of teenagers develop their sexuality with pornography and then find that relational sex isn't as satisfying, said Weiss, who also called sex addiction a "growing problem." He said extensive exposure to pornography alters
How does treatment work?
A good treatment center will review the reasons why the addiction has come about, along with the brain chemistry of it, McDaniel said. A premier rehabilitation facility would have a combination of individual and group therapy, 12-step support, and possibly psychiatric medications such as antidepressant medications if necessary.
Withdrawing from compulsive sexual behaviors for an addict is very similar to withdrawing from cocaine, McDaniel said. An addict will go into withdrawal, and without a treatment program, it's tempting to replace sex with something else, such as food or alcohol.
"Treatment is long-term, and it's not easy," McDaniel said. "I really recommend that a woman or a man find someone who's trained and understands that sex addiction is a brain disease and does not further the shame that comes with this disease."
Unlike drugs or alcohol, the goal of sex addiction therapy is usually not abstinence but rather learning to have sex in a relationship, experts say. Similarly, someone who recovers from an overeating disorder does not stop eating entirely but learns how to manage diet.
Marriage counseling often becomes part of the treatment, Weiss said.
What's after recovery?
Weiss considers himself a former sex addict, having recognized his problem in his early 20s. Women weren't making him happy; he was using pornography and felt "in conflict" about it.
Now, he runs resource Web site for recovery at sexaddict.com, along with three-day intensive workshops to jump-start recovery for sex addicts.
Weiss said he's proud of Duchovny for voluntarily seeking help, apparently without prodding from press reports or lawsuits.
"This kind of person who decides to get recovery for themselves without getting exposed" is "likely to get better," he said. "People who voluntarily get better have a much better chance of staying well."
[Via CNN]
It turns out sex addiction, also called compulsive sexual behavior, operates somewhat like a gambling compulsion or alcoholism: It's about devoting your free time to a behavior that you cannot stop, even if you damage relationships or prompt other negative consequences. Examples of addicting sex behaviors include extensively using pornography, having affairs, sleeping with prostitutes, and masturbating excessively, to the point where such behaviors get out of control.
If you think it's just about being horny, think again. For many addicts, sex becomes a way to numb out painful feelings, kill time or stop feeling lonely, said Kelly McDaniel, licensed professional counselor in San Antonio, Texas, and author of "Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex and Relationship Addiction."
"Most people I talk to get to the point where they don't even like sex," said McDaniel, who has no connection to David Duchovny and did not speculate about his specific situation.
Sex addiction is estimated to affect 3 to 6 percent of adults in the U.S., according to the Mayo Clinic, but the American Psychiatric Association has not classified the condition in its diagnostic handbook.
The Internet, providing endless opportunities for porn-watching and cybersex, has fueled a surge in cases of sex addiction, experts say.
"We're seeing it with epidemic proportions now, particularly with regards to cybersex," said Mark Schwartz, psychologist and former director of the Masters and Johnson Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. "There isn't a week that goes by where I don't get two calls" about sex addiction.
Therapists have recently seen more women with the condition in connection with Internet porn, which has become a "gender-neutral" addiction, McDaniel said. Before, female sex addicts generally tended to have affairs or become sex workers.
Experts acknowledge that people who have affairs or use pornography are not necessarily sex addicts. Such pastimes form an addiction when they generate negative consequences for a person's relationships, take over free time and become impossible to quit.
Where does it come from?
About 80 percent of sex addiction cases have sexual abuse or emotional trauma in their backgrounds, said Doug Weiss, therapist and executive director of the Heart to Heart Counseling Center. Schwartz also noted that huge numbers of people coming forward as sex addicts have been abused, assaulted or raped.
"When you have abuse in your background, you're less likely to trust people, [and] you're more likely to turn to something like sex addiction as a manifestation," Schwartz said.
Feelings of neglect as a child -- whether from divorced parents or parents who both worked and didn't spend a lot of time with their kids -- may also lead to sex addiction, Schwartz said.
Research into the neuroscience of sex addiction has not been conclusive, the Mayo Clinic said. Naturally occurring chemicals in the brain such as dopamine and serotonin do contribute to sexual functioning, but it's not clear how they are related to sex addiction. McDaniel said these two chemicals are lower in the brains of children who have suffered abuse, which may explain why some of them use their own bodies -- or, in other cases, food -- to increase dopamine and serotonin levels.
For many people, especially women, sex addiction occurs in tandem with another problem such as an eating disorder, drug or alcohol addiction, McDaniel said.
A lot of teenagers develop their sexuality with pornography and then find that relational sex isn't as satisfying, said Weiss, who also called sex addiction a "growing problem." He said extensive exposure to pornography alters
How does treatment work?
A good treatment center will review the reasons why the addiction has come about, along with the brain chemistry of it, McDaniel said. A premier rehabilitation facility would have a combination of individual and group therapy, 12-step support, and possibly psychiatric medications such as antidepressant medications if necessary.
Withdrawing from compulsive sexual behaviors for an addict is very similar to withdrawing from cocaine, McDaniel said. An addict will go into withdrawal, and without a treatment program, it's tempting to replace sex with something else, such as food or alcohol.
"Treatment is long-term, and it's not easy," McDaniel said. "I really recommend that a woman or a man find someone who's trained and understands that sex addiction is a brain disease and does not further the shame that comes with this disease."
Unlike drugs or alcohol, the goal of sex addiction therapy is usually not abstinence but rather learning to have sex in a relationship, experts say. Similarly, someone who recovers from an overeating disorder does not stop eating entirely but learns how to manage diet.
Marriage counseling often becomes part of the treatment, Weiss said.
What's after recovery?
Weiss considers himself a former sex addict, having recognized his problem in his early 20s. Women weren't making him happy; he was using pornography and felt "in conflict" about it.
Now, he runs resource Web site for recovery at sexaddict.com, along with three-day intensive workshops to jump-start recovery for sex addicts.
Weiss said he's proud of Duchovny for voluntarily seeking help, apparently without prodding from press reports or lawsuits.
"This kind of person who decides to get recovery for themselves without getting exposed" is "likely to get better," he said. "People who voluntarily get better have a much better chance of staying well."
[Via CNN]
Unthinkable Happens: Manhattan Apartment Prices Fall
Recently released city records indicate that apartments in prime Manhattan neighborhoods are selling for less than their purchase prices — a phenomenon that until now was virtually unheard of in the seemingly invincible New York City real estate market.
Among the apartments selling for a loss is a unit at 80 John St., in the financial district, which recently sold for $590,000, much lower than the $720,000 selling price in January. At 515 West End Ave., on the Upper West Side, an apartment recently sold for $2.1 million — $50,000 less than its 2005 purchase price. There are also apartments currently on the market that are listed for below their previous purchase prices: A three-bedroom condominium at 166 Duane St. in TriBeCa — the wealthiest ZIP code in America, according to Forbes magazine — is on the market for $4.495 million, well below the $4.7 million paid for the unit in April.
"This clearly indicates that the market is not what it was," the president of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, Jonathan Miller, said. "Two years ago, you'd be hard-pressed to find an apartment that sold for less than its purchase price."
Real estate firms have continued to pump out market reports showing high sales activity and rising median prices, largely because they use home sales that took place several months earlier. Newly released city records — it can take several weeks or months before the records are made available — show apartment sales are falling. The data flies in the face of repeated assertions from industry insiders over the past several months that the Manhattan real estate market is impervious to the housing slowdown taking place across the country.
"Everyone's saying the luxury market is so hot, but something like that sends a signal that maybe it isn't," a business analyst at real estate Web site StreetEasy.com, Derrick Gross, said.
In any market, there are some homeowners who are forced to sell their homes quickly for a variety of reasons — divorce, death, and job loss chief among them — and must accept less-than-ideal prices. In the white-hot Manhattan real estate market of the last eight years, even highly motivated sellers virtually always netted a profit, according to Mr. Gross.
In the two years since the site began tracking real estate data, a fall in real estate prices "hasn't really been happening," Mr. Gross said. "It's definitely something new. In a really hot market, this wouldn't happen."
The $200,000 discount on the Duane Street listing "is definitely drastic," Mr. Gross said, especially considering it is in TriBeCa. The apartment, a corner unit, was listed with the Corcoran Group at $4.75 million in June, and the price has been reduced twice, according to StreetEasy.com.
The broker representing the seller, Jared Seligman, said the owners are selling the pre-war loft for personal reasons and that the apartment has an offer but not a signed contract. "Before, it was priced a little high," Mr. Seligman said, adding that in the current market, "if you're not priced appropriately, it's not going to sell."
In Mr. Miller's second quarter market report, the median sales price of a Manhattan apartment exceeded $1 million for the first time since he began tracking the information. In part, this is because of new developments, which tend to be priced higher.
"The market condition story of Manhattan has been clouded by the inclusion of a high concentration of new developments into the housing stock," he said.
While prices of new developments have soared, resale activity is showing modest declines, he said. "When you talk about resale, it's very hard to make the case that the typical apartment today is worth more than it was six months ago," he said.
Mr. Miller added that apartments all over the city, in different income brackets, are now posting declines. "It's a broad-based sample, suggesting it's not an anomaly."
A broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Ann Cutbill Lenane, recently pulled a listing off the market at 342 W. 85th St. after three price reductions. Purchased by the owners in 2006 for $1.325 million, the asking price was reduced to $1.25 million when she decided to pull it off the market until after Labor Day. "The market's corrected," she said. "It's not as buoyant as it was."
She said the apartment has attracted "a lot of interest," and that buyers can still be found in Manhattan once the price is right. "We're very lucky given what the rest of the country is going through," she said.
A broker at Gumley Haft Kleier, Donna Sims, recently sold an apartment listed at $799,000, down from the $800,000 the owners spent to buy it in 2006.
In the current market, "if you think you were going to make a big profit, it's going to be a disappointment," she said, adding that sellers often make up for the loss by getting better deals on their new homes. "If you're going to buy something on the other end, you can do well," she said.
The market hasn't completely lost steam, Mr. Miller said — once the real estate market picks up again after Labor Day, there likely will be more sales of new construction apartments at record-high prices. Because of ongoing layoffs on Wall Street and an expected drop in bonuses, though, more apartments will be sold at a loss.
"This is just the beginning," Mr. Gross said.
[Via NY Sun]
Among the apartments selling for a loss is a unit at 80 John St., in the financial district, which recently sold for $590,000, much lower than the $720,000 selling price in January. At 515 West End Ave., on the Upper West Side, an apartment recently sold for $2.1 million — $50,000 less than its 2005 purchase price. There are also apartments currently on the market that are listed for below their previous purchase prices: A three-bedroom condominium at 166 Duane St. in TriBeCa — the wealthiest ZIP code in America, according to Forbes magazine — is on the market for $4.495 million, well below the $4.7 million paid for the unit in April.
"This clearly indicates that the market is not what it was," the president of the real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, Jonathan Miller, said. "Two years ago, you'd be hard-pressed to find an apartment that sold for less than its purchase price."
Real estate firms have continued to pump out market reports showing high sales activity and rising median prices, largely because they use home sales that took place several months earlier. Newly released city records — it can take several weeks or months before the records are made available — show apartment sales are falling. The data flies in the face of repeated assertions from industry insiders over the past several months that the Manhattan real estate market is impervious to the housing slowdown taking place across the country.
"Everyone's saying the luxury market is so hot, but something like that sends a signal that maybe it isn't," a business analyst at real estate Web site StreetEasy.com, Derrick Gross, said.
In any market, there are some homeowners who are forced to sell their homes quickly for a variety of reasons — divorce, death, and job loss chief among them — and must accept less-than-ideal prices. In the white-hot Manhattan real estate market of the last eight years, even highly motivated sellers virtually always netted a profit, according to Mr. Gross.
In the two years since the site began tracking real estate data, a fall in real estate prices "hasn't really been happening," Mr. Gross said. "It's definitely something new. In a really hot market, this wouldn't happen."
The $200,000 discount on the Duane Street listing "is definitely drastic," Mr. Gross said, especially considering it is in TriBeCa. The apartment, a corner unit, was listed with the Corcoran Group at $4.75 million in June, and the price has been reduced twice, according to StreetEasy.com.
The broker representing the seller, Jared Seligman, said the owners are selling the pre-war loft for personal reasons and that the apartment has an offer but not a signed contract. "Before, it was priced a little high," Mr. Seligman said, adding that in the current market, "if you're not priced appropriately, it's not going to sell."
In Mr. Miller's second quarter market report, the median sales price of a Manhattan apartment exceeded $1 million for the first time since he began tracking the information. In part, this is because of new developments, which tend to be priced higher.
"The market condition story of Manhattan has been clouded by the inclusion of a high concentration of new developments into the housing stock," he said.
While prices of new developments have soared, resale activity is showing modest declines, he said. "When you talk about resale, it's very hard to make the case that the typical apartment today is worth more than it was six months ago," he said.
Mr. Miller added that apartments all over the city, in different income brackets, are now posting declines. "It's a broad-based sample, suggesting it's not an anomaly."
A broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman, Ann Cutbill Lenane, recently pulled a listing off the market at 342 W. 85th St. after three price reductions. Purchased by the owners in 2006 for $1.325 million, the asking price was reduced to $1.25 million when she decided to pull it off the market until after Labor Day. "The market's corrected," she said. "It's not as buoyant as it was."
She said the apartment has attracted "a lot of interest," and that buyers can still be found in Manhattan once the price is right. "We're very lucky given what the rest of the country is going through," she said.
A broker at Gumley Haft Kleier, Donna Sims, recently sold an apartment listed at $799,000, down from the $800,000 the owners spent to buy it in 2006.
In the current market, "if you think you were going to make a big profit, it's going to be a disappointment," she said, adding that sellers often make up for the loss by getting better deals on their new homes. "If you're going to buy something on the other end, you can do well," she said.
The market hasn't completely lost steam, Mr. Miller said — once the real estate market picks up again after Labor Day, there likely will be more sales of new construction apartments at record-high prices. Because of ongoing layoffs on Wall Street and an expected drop in bonuses, though, more apartments will be sold at a loss.
"This is just the beginning," Mr. Gross said.
[Via NY Sun]
Monday, September 1, 2008
Author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die" Died at 47
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) - Dave Freeman, co-author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die," a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. He was 47.
Freeman died August 17 after the fall at his Venice home, his father, Roy Freeman, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
An advertising agency executive, Freeman co-wrote the 1999 book subtitled "Travel Events You Just Can't Miss" with Neil Teplica. It was based on the Web site whatsgoingon.com, which the pair ran together from 1996 to 2001.
"This life is a short journey," the book says. "How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?"
Freeman's relatives said he visited about half the places on his list before he died, and either he or Teplica had been to nearly all of them. iReport.com: Did Freeman inspire your travel adventure?
"He didn't have enough days, but he lived them like he should have," Teplica said.
The book's recommendations ranged from the obvious - attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain - to the more obscure - taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and "land diving" on the Island of Vanuatu, which Freeman once called "the original bungee jumping."
It included goofy graphics with each entry, indicating that some activities were "down and dirty," and others "grandma friendly."
The success of "100 Things" inspired dozens of like-minded books, with titles such as "100 Things Project Managers Should Do Before They Die" and "100 Things Cowboys Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die."
Freeman graduated from the University of Southern California in 1983, briefly working for an ad agency in Newport Beach before moving to New York to work for Grey Advertising.
On September 11, 2001, Freeman watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from his apartment just blocks away. He moved back to Southern California to be closer to his family.
Freeman died August 17 after the fall at his Venice home, his father, Roy Freeman, told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
An advertising agency executive, Freeman co-wrote the 1999 book subtitled "Travel Events You Just Can't Miss" with Neil Teplica. It was based on the Web site whatsgoingon.com, which the pair ran together from 1996 to 2001.
"This life is a short journey," the book says. "How can you make sure you fill it with the most fun and that you visit all the coolest places on earth before you pack those bags for the very last time?"
Freeman's relatives said he visited about half the places on his list before he died, and either he or Teplica had been to nearly all of them. iReport.com: Did Freeman inspire your travel adventure?
"He didn't have enough days, but he lived them like he should have," Teplica said.
The book's recommendations ranged from the obvious - attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain - to the more obscure - taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and "land diving" on the Island of Vanuatu, which Freeman once called "the original bungee jumping."
It included goofy graphics with each entry, indicating that some activities were "down and dirty," and others "grandma friendly."
The success of "100 Things" inspired dozens of like-minded books, with titles such as "100 Things Project Managers Should Do Before They Die" and "100 Things Cowboys Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die."
Freeman graduated from the University of Southern California in 1983, briefly working for an ad agency in Newport Beach before moving to New York to work for Grey Advertising.
On September 11, 2001, Freeman watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from his apartment just blocks away. He moved back to Southern California to be closer to his family.
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