(Part 2) Top products from r/psychology

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We found 43 product mentions on r/psychology. We ranked the 440 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.

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Top comments that mention products on r/psychology:

u/happyhex · 3 pointsr/psychology

I apologize in advance for this wall of text. There's a TL;DR at the bottom.

I'm a fellow undergrad and working on getting into graduate school also.

One of the biggest things I'm learning is that research experience is crucial to make yourself a better applicant.

If you're in the US and are wanting to get a PhD, you will want to start studying for the GRE and take it in your junior year of college if possible. Most if not all of the PhD programs that are certified by the American Psychological Association require the GRE.

If your college has any research programs, you could try to get involved with those. If they don't, you could try talking with a professor to see whether you could help them with their research.

If these don't work, you might try volunteering at other colleges nearby. Finally some colleges will let you conduct an independent study (often for college credit) with a faculty member. These are excellent ways to gain research experience and show grad school programs that you're a serious candidate.

As far as volunteer work is concern, I've been told that it all looks good, but it looks even better if it's somehow related to what you're trying to study. You might consider doing an informational interview with a clinical psychologist and also a health psychologist. This will help you get a better understanding of what they think about the career, what they had to do/learn to get licensed in their career etc. Additionally it will help you network with other psychologists who will be your peers in the future, and finally it might help you clarify which of the two fields you're interested in pursuing.

I conducted informational interviews with psychologists and counselors and it helped me decide on the kind of degree and research focus I am interested in.

As a final note, the American Psychological Association has published several books that are helpful regarding grad school in the United States. Here are the ones I found helpful:

Getting In: A Step-by-Step Plan for Gaining Admission to Graduate School in Psychology, Second Edition

The "Getting In" book has helpful information and chapter 7 has information on preselection interviews along with information on common questions that are often asked of graduate school applicants, as well as good questions for you to ask them during the interview.

Graduate Study in Psychology - You'll want to wait on this one until you're in your senior year as it is updated annually. This is the best book I've bought as it has info on every APA certified program in the US and Canada.

Surviving Graduate School in Psychology: A Pocket Mentor I'm not in grad school yet, but this helped me get a better picture of what the day-to-day realities of grad school are.

Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You, Second Edition

The "Career Paths in Psychology" text is helpful if you're not certain which specialty you'd like to go into. The chapters in this book are written by psychologists and counselors in a variety of areas including academia, private practice, hospital settings and more. There are three chapters that may be of interest to you specifically. The first two involve clinical psychologists, one in private practice and the other in a hospital setting. The third chapter is specific to health psychologists.

These books are available via the APA website, but are cheaper if you purchase them through Amazon. Also, all but one of them are available in Kindle editions if you have a Kindle or Smartphone or the Amazon reader installed on your computer.

TL;DR Gaining research experience is crucial to becoming a better grad school candidate. Talk with professors about helping with their research and/or look into doing an independent study at your college. APA has several helpful books on this topic if you're pursuing graduate school in the United States.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps!

(edited for clarity - I'm an undergrad working on getting into grad school, I'm not doing both at the same time. Doh!)

u/mrsamsa · 1 pointr/psychology

>I'm guessing you're trained in a relatively enlightened form of psychology or social work or another field, rather than psychiatry. Psychiatrists consider theselves in the mental health field, and they go to medical school, so they also consider themselves doctors.

Psychology is my field, I don't think I had a particularly enlightened education or career though. And I've known a few psychiatrists but none of them seem to fit the description you have of them.

And yeah they do consider themselves doctors because they are.

>It's my understanding that in the olden days, people with behavioral symptoms related to things like viral encephalitis which were clearly biological in origin were considered schizophrenics.

I can't say for sure as I don't know enough about that specific issue but there's a difference between something being a biological cause of a mental disorder and something being a brain disease.

> (have you read Robert Whitaker by the way? You could probably pick apart his arguments if you want, but definitely worth a read.

I might check it out if I can stomach it but I generally steer clear of Whittaker as he's well known for misrepresenting the field..

>Anyway, there's definitely biological causes for undesired emotional/behavioral experiences. Interestingly, as soon as one is discovered, those patients are no longer under psychiatric purview - they go to neurologists or infectious disease docs or whatever. I think this reinforces your point that mental health practitioners have a corresponding opportunity to work outside models of biological causality, and are missing the point (or lying) if they're claiming neurotransmitters are the primary cause of mental illness. I think this is also why I get so frustrated and angry when they are so quick to prescribe SSRI's and implying that they are a disease treatment, rather than offering them up as neuroactive compounds that a person may find helpful (as in managing symptoms, not curing disease).

As I say above, I think there is a difference between a brain disease and a biological cause. If someone gets syphilis then it's not a mental disorder, but if someone is born with a particular brain makeup that leads to the development of some disorder, then that's a mental disorder.

>>1) I don't think the DSM encourages any particular treatment option over the other,

>Either way, in practice psychiatrists encourage drugs. Their hammer makes your problem look like a nail.

They do as they are medical doctors but that's not their only treatment option and they usually work in unison with psychologists to provide all relevant treatment options.

>Now here is a fruitful topic of discussion. Key word is "can be" the best option. For some. We need to be honest about the fact that they may also not be for others. I drink coffee routinely to treat my sleepiness and/or lack of motivation, and for now, it works for me. I wouldn't try and strongly suggest that you do the same under the guise of science.

Absolutely but this is a well recognised fact. That's why psychiatrists will continually monitor the effectiveness of the drugs and it's dosage, and provide psychotherapies where applicable.

To be clear, I'm talking about good practice here and not suggesting this occurs in every case.

>Furthermore, there is mounting evidence that these meds (though often effective in a positive way over short time scales) are causing severe side effects over the long-term. Symptoms like akethesia, diabetes, tardive dyskinesia, just to name a few.

Definitely! But two points here: 1) all medications have this issue, and 2) not medicating someone has worse consequences than the side effects.

>And we are still using electroshock in this country, which is really saddening to me.

ECT is an effective treatment option which can be a life saver for many people.

>Disagree on all fronts. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD when we were kids, and that altered his identity. To this day his self-confidence in himself is very weak. He never was able to develop tools to focus, or the confidence that he could be a self-sufficient person.

What makes you think that was the drugs and not the ADHD?

>Adderall most definitely produces results that parents, teachers, and psychiatrists are going to like. I wouldn't conclude that this is the 'best'.

The primary measure of success is usually how the patient feels and an effective treatment is one that generally increases their autonomy and ability to function.

>And what's 'best'? By what metric of success? I advocate a flexible model of treatment. If a patient wants to try pills, then go for it; if they want to try CBT or ACT, or meditation and exercise, by all means! When a therapist accompanies a patient through his/her own journey and allows them to grow in self-determination, I almost think THAT's what heals most, and the specific techniques matter much less.

Sort of agreed. Patients should be allowed to choose their path but the professional must ensure that the patient is being given the best information and they recommend treatments that evidence shows will be most effective for the individual.

u/PavlovianRude · 1 pointr/psychology

It sounds like you're in great shape so far. In terms of breaking into the research arena, taking a behavioral research class is an excellent start. Like I said in my previous post, do well in the class, express your interest to the instructor, and get to know him/her. This will open up doors for you. They are not teaching that class for no reason. They will have, at the very least, some connection to the research world. Once you show the instructor you can do well and are interested, approach them about any research opportunities he/she knows and you will hopefully get some leads.

Unfortunately, instructors at community college usually don't do their own research (I don't know where you live, but that's generally how it is where I am in the US). So you may not get a lot of opportunities out of that course (though you'll probably learn some great stuff).

However, once you transfer to a university, those opportunities will be far more plentiful as professors at big schools focus on research. Their jobs depend on it. So again, once you transfer, get to know all of your professors, express your interest, and approach them about participating as a research assistant. This will open doors for you.

Another good practice, once you're at university, is to look up the faculty members in the psychology department. Even if you haven't taken a class with them, you can email them and ask if they need help in their lab.

As for hospitals, there are definitely research opportunities there. However, at least where I'm from, most of those positions in hospitals are paid and require some previous experience. So those may be out of reach for you right now. Most everyone I know cut their research teeth at a university volunteering for professors.

Another thing that's very helpful is to figure out what you're actually interested in doing both clinically and research wise. That is, having a specific focus will help you immensely. The earlier you know this, the more of an advantage you have.

In my case, I knew I wanted to do drug and alcohol research. So I targeted professors at my university who did research along those lines. By gaining pre graduate research experience in that sub discipline of psychology, my application for grad school was stronger because it showed the schools I was applying to that I had a long standing interest in the topic and had actual lab experience to back up my interest (it's easy to say that you are super interested in a topic, but to be able to actually say "Hey, I've done work in this area!" is invaluable. I would argue that this will get you into a program more than your grades or GRE scores (though those are certainly important).

I would also recommend that you get this book. It really breaks down what you need to do to get admitted to solid programs.

u/sirrescom · 1 pointr/psychology

>I can't speak for medical doctors but it's not widespread in the mental health field which, as I say above, is more focused on the biopsychosocial model.

I'm guessing you're trained in a relatively enlightened form of psychology or social work or another field, rather than psychiatry. Psychiatrists consider theselves in the mental health field, and they go to medical school, so they also consider themselves doctors.

>That isn't to say that it's never right to focus on biological causes of disorders. I'm skeptical of some attempts to support such claims (like saying that since there are brain differences then it must be biological) but that doesn't make it necessarily wrong.
With schizophrenia in particular I was under the impression that there is some good evidence for biological causes. With the exception of people like Mosher and Bentall, I can't think of many researchers that oppose it. Their book 'Models of Madness' was quite good but I think they make similar mistakes in the opposite direction, of presenting bad evidence in support of environmental causes.

It's my understanding that in the olden days, people with behavioral symptoms related to things like viral encephalitis which were clearly biological in origin were considered schizophrenics. (have you read Robert Whitaker by the way? You could probably pick apart his arguments if you want, but definitely worth a read. Anyway, there's definitely biological causes for undesired emotional/behavioral experiences. Interestingly, as soon as one is discovered, those patients are no longer under psychiatric purview - they go to neurologists or infectious disease docs or whatever. I think this reinforces your point that mental health practitioners have a corresponding opportunity to work outside models of biological causality, and are missing the point (or lying) if they're claiming neurotransmitters are the primary cause of mental illness. I think this is also why I get so frustrated and angry when they are so quick to prescribe SSRI's and implying that they are a disease treatment, rather than offering them up as neuroactive compounds that a person may find helpful (as in managing symptoms, not curing disease).

>1) I don't think the DSM encourages any particular treatment option over the other,

Either way, in practice psychiatrists encourage drugs. Their hammer makes your problem look like a nail.

2) even if disorders aren't biological, it doesn't mean biological treatments aren't the best option. Behaviors and thoughts still need to go through the brain and so manipulating the brain directly can be the best treatment option - and not just to "relieve symptoms".

Now here is a fruitful topic of discussion. Key word is "can be" the best option. For some. We need to be honest about the fact that they may also not be for others. I drink coffee routinely to treat my sleepiness and/or lack of motivation, and for now, it works for me. I wouldn't try and strongly suggest that you do the same under the guise of science. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence that these meds (though often effective in a positive way over short time scales) are causing severe side effects over the long-term. Symptoms like akethesia, diabetes, tardive dyskinesia, just to name a few. And we are still using electroshock in this country, which is really saddening to me.

>For example even if ADHD wasn't biologically caused, we still know that medication is the best treatment. Conversely, just because a disorder is biologically caused it doesn't mean non-biological treatments aren't the best option (e.g autism with behavioral therapy).

Disagree on all fronts. My brother was diagnosed with ADHD when we were kids, and that altered his identity. To this day his self-confidence in himself is very weak. He never was able to develop tools to focus, or the confidence that he could be a self-sufficient person. Adderall most definitely produces results that parents, teachers, and psychiatrists are going to like. I wouldn't conclude that this is the 'best'. And what's 'best'? By what metric of success? I advocate a flexible model of treatment. If a patient wants to try pills, then go for it; if they want to try CBT or ACT, or meditation and exercise, by all means! When a therapist accompanies a patient through his/her own journey and allows them to grow in self-determination, I almost think THAT's what heals most, and the specific techniques matter much less.

I'm going to bed; this was a good discussion - would be fun to talk more sometime.









u/[deleted] · 1 pointr/psychology

Dang, I don't know anyone in NYC (I'm out west). Some general recommendations:

  1. As I mentioned, many therapists will work on either a sliding scale, or have reduced fees for a select number of clients. As I said, these spaces can be difficult to get into (sometimes a therapist that sees 30 clients weekly will have only 2-3 spots for pro bono work).

  2. If you have no insurance and have limited finances, you may be able to qualify for MedicAid or other public services. I don't know NY's laws at all, but there are sometimes public programs. A department of Workforce Services can sometimes help with determining your eligibility.

  3. There are a number of good resources that you can use on your own while you look. One such workbook is called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life. I use this as an adjunct to much of the therapy I do with run-of-the-mill anxiety, depression, or similar concerns. Disclaimer: I do the therapy that Hayes (the author) developed. I don't have a financial stake or anything, but like folks to know there are other options such as this one.

  4. There may be a community clinic near you that provides mental health services. These are fine options for lower income individuals that are looking for support. A quick google search returned this place. Not sure if it's near you, but appears to offer MH services. This place may also be a good bet, they have a sliding scale and accept many payment types.

  5. The best way to tell if a therapist is good is to just talk with them about how they work. Any decent therapist can have a genuine conversation about their approach to therapy and will be transparent about it. See if their philosophy fits with you and your life. If what you want is problem solving and the person only works from a Freudian perspective, it may not work with you two regardless of how competent the therapist is and how committed you are to therapy.

    Hope that helps.
u/EverVigilant · 3 pointsr/psychology

A combination of becoming very well-read in Horneyan psychoanalysis (especially her books Our Inner Conflicts and Neurosis and Human Growth. Also Self-Analysis), smoking marijuana, and finding God. And finally finding a really good therapist. And time, lots of time.

Ultimately it was about swallowing my pride and committing to see things as they are, as best as I can tell, regardless of how I might feel about that. Recognizing that learning the truth about something (in my case, ways I have hurt certain people in the past), even if a bitter pill, cannot actually harm me. It's just knowledge.

That might sound cryptic, but it's the best way I can think of to put it. The Horney books really helped, because they exposed me to myself in ways I found it very difficult to deny. Reading them while high on good weed was especially an experience, because I made the emotional connections much more easily (believe it or not you can learn to read while high if you work your way past the super-short-attention-span phase). Once I saw certain connections I simply could not deny, I discovered what it means to be in dire need of forgiveness (this is tough to explain, but let's just say it's hard to be somebody committed to the truth and then realize that means you have to carry around an awful truth about yourself). I asked for it, and had an experience of grace half a year later.

A few years of a mix of blessings and involvement in spiritual kookery and I eventually found a fantastic therapist, and the two of us are working together to uncover the inner bullshit that keeps me down, and to set me free.

That was a bit long-winded, but you asked.

u/dviper785 · 1 pointr/psychology

I'm only about half-way through it, but I think the book your looking for is The Red Book which was just recently released from the Jung family's swiss bank vault, after collecting dust for about half a century. This NYTime's article does a fantastic job of telling the very rich story of the book.

From what I have read so far, the archetypes are formed from the experiences outlined in this book [events that take place within the unconscious mind]; his dreams and "active imagination" sessions, which could be comparable to waking hallucinations. The bridge, I think, is that he found all the same symbols in his dreams/imagination sessions as in the many patients he analyzed himself - leading him to the formation of the archetypes and the idea of the collective unconscious. I'm not yet at the point where I could articulate a valid tl;dr answer for you, and also keep in mind this is just my interpretation of the material, not "solid facts."

It's really something you have to read to understand, it's no easy task either, challenging and delightful.

u/escapevelocity11 · 2 pointsr/psychology

Well, I just got accepted to the clinical psychology doctoral program at Texas Tech to work with Dr. Joaquin Borrego. I'm interested in PCIT (parent-child interaction therapy) and it's applications for children with autism. So I sort of understand where you're coming from. Have you considered applied behavior analysis, if you're seriously interested in autism? I plan on completing enough coursework within the ABA program at TTU that I can still obtain my BCBA (and maybe my BCBA-D) while still taking the clinical psychology coursework. Fortunately my mentor has a background in clinical behavior analysis so that works well for me.

All of the professors I worked with while in undergrad (at WVU, a research I school) highly suggested I go straight into a PhD program rather than obtaining my masters degree first. This was mostly because I was completely uninterested in wasting 2 years and tens of thousands of dollars just to have to go back and complete a lot of the same coursework for my PhD.

I highly suggest the Insiders Guide to Clinical and Counseling Psychology (http://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Graduate-Programs-Counseling-Psychology/dp/1609189329/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369282225&sr=1-1&keywords=insiders+guide+to+graduate+programs+in+clinical+and+counseling+psychology+2013) as a reference. It gives lots of details regarding what sorts of research is being conducted at universities all over the US.

Hope this helped a little!

u/frondoad · 3 pointsr/psychology

Yes, absolutely. Knowledge is key.

Consider this analogy: A clinically depressed person, is an individual who is in an unfamiliar land, a depressive land. And psychological knowledge, and philosophical knowledge serves as the map with which the individual may become better acquainted with their surroundings, feeling more comfortable there, and the map can direct them towards roads/highways/bridges to leave that place and venture to other states of mind.


I was depressed to the point of cutting myself each night and considering suicide on a weekly basis. And so I checked myself into a clinical psychologist and it was the best decision I ever made in my life thus far.

I realize you have financial constraints, and so I will tell you that I benefited wonderfully from therapy thus far through my therapist's book recommendations. I've since become very interested in philosophy. And you will find that philosophy and psychology are like neighbors really.

u/yeti_boy · 2 pointsr/psychology

comics about the brain :::
infographic about memory :::
biology behind alcohol-induced blackouts :::
cool awareness test :::
hodge podge of material, I'm mostly interested in neuroscience and behavioral economics, speaking of which a book called predictably irrational mentions some social experiments you could easily implement in the classroom. hope something helps.

u/dgodon · 11 pointsr/psychology

This video is definitely a very accessible (and entertaining) way to introduce management or HR (or teachers or coaches or whoever) to the problems of bribes.

Dan Pink also did a great TED talk on this topic.

Besides Drive, there are a number of other great books on the topic:

u/Vystril · 2 pointsr/psychology

I'd recommend (just off the top of my head):

u/dwarfed · 9 pointsr/psychology

There's a pretty interesting book that proposes a theory in which ancient humans actually heard their own thoughts and interpreted it as a different person, or god. The book is called "The Origin of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind," and here is an Amazon link.

u/Radfad2000 · 1 pointr/psychology

These two books will give you interesting ides which will further your investigation into this topic. Some Psych, some social commentary, some sociology, some political commentary. All are worthwhile and will help you break open the subject matter.

http://www.amazon.com/Talk-About-Race-Conversations-Resegregation/dp/0807032840

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465083617/ref=pd_sim_b_1

u/CuriousGrugg · 5 pointsr/psychology

>A lot of modern psychology and neuroscience appears to be neglecting the concept of the unconscious mind.... Psychology is so determined to get religion out of science that it cannot allow for the concept of the unconscious

I honestly cannot imagine how you came to this conclusion. There is no question at all among psychologists that unconscious processes play an important role in cognition. Every single popular cognitive psychology book I can think of (e.g. 1 2 3 4) discusses the importance of unconscious processes.

u/mynameisalso · 1 pointr/psychology

I'm just a normal guy, but this book is a real trip. He thinks up to about 3000 years ago humans didn't have a conscience. And when it started to develop people thought it was God speaking to them. I don't know how true it is, but extremely interesting. https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Consciousness-Breakdown-Bicameral-Mind/dp/0618057072

u/ToAnchorMySoul · 14 pointsr/psychology

Well said. I'm reminded of the book, Sex at Dawn in which the whole "males are more sexual than females" stereotype is debunked. A good read if you're interested in the subject.

u/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxZx · 3 pointsr/psychology

Exactly - PTSD and CPTSD are as much physical as mental or chemical.

The Body Keeps the Score

You're the one experiencing your life, not all of us commenting here. You are the authority on your experience - there are many roads to healing, and not everyone is lucky enough to be in a position where they have the resources, support, money, stability, time, and safety to do that work.

u/DogDay · 1 pointr/psychology

Love it. I've been reading Mindset over the past few weeks and it's really changed how I talk to my 8 year-old son about his school work.

Couple this book with The Learning Habit if you're raising young students.

u/Behavioral · 4 pointsr/psychology

http://www.amazon.com/Graduate-Psychology-American-Psychological-Association/dp/1433810670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314577432&sr=8-1

I bought that book a while back when I was considering graduate school in Psychology (I opted for and am now attending a doctorate in Marketing instead).

For non-Clinical programs, it's perhaps the best single resource for data and information from almost every American program. Average GRE, GPA, admission statistics, program/school description and orientations, demographics, application deadlines, etc. are all included.

u/Salmagundi77 · 1 pointr/psychology

The opposite of black and white thinking (I guess you mean reflexive decision-making) isn't indecision, it's informed and reflective decision.

This resource might help you: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

u/TheGMan323 · 1 pointr/psychology

This seems to be more about fixed vs. growth mindsets rather than introversion vs. narcissism.

u/SalvadorDaliLama · 3 pointsr/psychology

Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It's not too heavy and its an important book in humanistic psych.

u/norquist · 1 pointr/psychology

Recently read "Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?"
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Kids-Sitting-Together-Cafeteria/dp/0465083617

It may not be what you're looking for, but it goes into depth about racial identity for various races.

u/VelvetElvis · 2 pointsr/psychology

High dose SSRIs plus a low dose anti-psychotic does the trick for me. The AP prevents the intrusive thoughts and the SSRI helps with the obsessions.

Also check out this workbook. I got more out of it than any therapist I've seen for OCD.

http://www.amazon.com/OCD-Workbook-Breaking-Obsessive-Compulsive/dp/1572249218/

u/whiskeysnowcone · 21 pointsr/psychology

Probably not, if I remember right repressing memories is very very rare. Considering the way in which dreaming works it's just as random as any other dream unless otherwise developed from recent thought patterns. If anyone has any other sources for the occurrence of memory repression it would be most helpful

Edit:

According to Elizabeth Loftus, a well respected name in memory research she finds there to be no tangible evidence for memory repression and cites cases where the theory doesn't hold up. She wrote a book about it called The Myth of Repressed Memory: False Memories and Allegations of Sexual Abuse

u/GreenLightning2010 · 2 pointsr/psychology

I'm not a doctor, but I do have OCD, and that sounds like OCD to me. Take a look through the pages of this book you can preview on Amazon's website. I can't link you straight to it, but read the intro and especially the Forms of OCD part, you will probably identify with a lot of what is written. The thing to takeaway is you can leave it alone if it's not bothering you, or you can work with a self help book, or see a therapist, do CBT, or pursue medication. There's no right or wrong answer, it's all about how you feel about it and if you feel the need to change anything or not. Anyway, that link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1572249218/ref=sib_dp_pop_ex?ie=UTF8&p=S00Q#reader-link

u/fukenhippie · 0 pointsr/psychology

"the female body, likes everything, or at least responds to everything (or does not know what it likes, some cynics will say) Female physiological arousal (as measured by vaginal lubrication) occurs in response to viewing most any type of sexual activity:"

God forbid, that women get turned on by many different things. Oh the horror at the thought of women having a very active libido. Women are only supposed to want to have sex in the missionary position, with one partner, until they die. They don't get turned on by anything besides rose petals, chocolate, romance and the thought of becoming a mother.

" According to this theory, the vagina immediately becomes moist at any hint of sexual activity in the vicinity so as to protect the woman from injury in the event of rape or sexual violence. "

Did the thought ever occur to them that women's bodies might get respond that way to sexual stimuli so they can get ready to have sex too! The vagina could never get ready for random sexual intercourse just for the fun of it, you know outside of procreation. I hear a lot of biased interpretations based in Victorian era western notions of female sexuality.

Take a gander at Sex at Dawn for a less biased account of human sexuality.

u/subtextual · 3 pointsr/psychology

Beta blockers help people go through with flooding, but ultimately they are self-defeating. The point of flooding is for people to experience the very high levels of fear they feel in the presence of the feared stimulus, but realize they can handle both the fear and the feared stimulus. Using beta blockers takes the fear out of the equation, which helps them handle the feared stimulus but not the fear. When the person then encounters the feared stimulus while not on the beta blocker, when the fear resurfaces (through, say, spontaneous recovery), the person reverts to their previous phobic avoidance of the feared stimulus.

There are a couple of nice books out now on following ACT by yourself. The Happiness Trap is one such self-help book, and if you like it, there are some nice free resources, like worksheets you can use, available at that website. Additionally, Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life is a self-help workbook-type thing written by Steven Hayes, the psychologist who developed ACT. Both of those resources are great, IMO.