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1 week ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
Yes, I own a Tesla. No, I don’t admire Elon Musk. In fact, I hold him in utter contempt, along with his deeply disturbed enabler in the Oval Office. However, I’m not particularly fond of those who believe that demonizing Tesla owners and vandalizing their vehicles is a valid way to strike blows against the evil empire. If you are of this persuasion, we have issues.
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1 week ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
Diagnosing psychological problems has always been a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey sort of procedure, as much guesswork as science. A large meta-analysis showed conclusively just how subjective, biased and error-prone this process can be.
To erase some of this uncertainty, mental health types use all sorts of diagnostic knick-knacks, including psychological tests, structured interviews, symptom checklists, etc.
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1 month ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
The most vital freedom has nothing to do with civics, politics or law. It’s called “freedom of mind.” It emerges from the power to define oneself, to formulate one’s own identity, rather than having it imposed by others.
Many of us don’t believe we possess the agency to determine or own minds, that we are permanently sculpted by genes, developmental experiences, early life trauma, family dynamics and the rest of the cooks in the mental kitchen.
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1 month ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
“I realized it when I laughed,” Karen explained.
“A guy at the party told this lame joke. It wasn’t funny, in fact, it was insulting and sexist. But when I heard it, I let out this fake laugh, which just stopped me in my tracks, hearing that phony giggle coming out of my mouth.”
“And what did you realize?” I asked.
“That how much of what I do around other people isn’t honest, how I go along to get along,” she replied.
“There’s a lot of that going around,” I reassured her.
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1 month ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
“I hate this weather,” Ken shouted over the howling wind, straining to free his windshield of ice. Colleagues, we were in a parking lot struggling to make our vehicles safe to drive.
I paused from my own scraping to gaze skyward into the vortex of swirling snow, feeling its wind-driven sting on my face. It was a cold, blustery, wild evening that provided an impressive display of nature’s capacity for atmospheric mayhem.
“Don’t you wish you lived somewhere warm?” he hollered.
“No,” I bellowed.
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1 month ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
I had just settled into my hotel room when the phone jingled. It was the evening before I was to speak at a national conference and the organizer was calling.
“Would you like to go to dinner with Scott Carpenter?” she asked.
“Are you kidding?” I replied.
I knew that Scott, one of the original Mercury astronauts, was to keynote at the conference, but I assumed he would merely rush in, give his remarks and depart. I never imagined I would break bread with him.
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1 month ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
As an old Eagles song reminds us, some people will “try any ill to find the cure.” Cindy was a painful case in point.
“I’ve been divorced twice and went through a half dozen other romances that ended in disaster,” she lamented.
“Like recurring dreams, repetitive behaviors are usually telling us something,” I suggested. “What’s the message you see here?”
“Apparently, I keep choosing the same kind of man, the wrong kind,” she replied.
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2 months ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
Eric was struggling to restrain his seething anger toward his estranged wife. “She cheated on me, plain and simple. Lied to my face. And I can't get it out of my head. It's with me night and day,” he explained.
It's a rare human who hasn't felt wronged by someone and then struggled to cope with the resulting hurt, acrimony and even rage.
“What are your intentions?” I asked.
“All I can think about is pay back. I want to make her suffer for the pain she caused me,” he replied.
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2 months ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
Jake was an outgoing, affable 50-year-old craftsman, married with grown kids and a solid career. Most in his social orbit liked him, and he seemed to feel the same about them.
And then one sparkling afternoon in May while his spouse ran errands, he chugged down some bourbon, turned on his car in the garage, closed his eyes and let the carbon monoxide do the rest. She returned to find his lifeless body with a note pinned to his shirt.
The first time I visited with his wife, she handed it to me.
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2 months ago | 
shepherdexpress.com | Philip Chard
Have you ever been the victim of an unfounded rumor or slanderous gossip? Many of us have, and the number who can claim this unhappy distinction is growing rapidly. Social media, in particular, has become an increasingly destructive platform for character assassination, rumor mongering, cyberbullying and personal vendettas.
“Disinformation,” as slander is antiseptically labeled, has been the subject of much psychological research.
