Category: Brains and minds
Ricks -- who earlier wrote Fiasco , a devastating indictment of the run-up to the war, makes three things quite clear: The surge was not about more soldiers, but soldiers doing different things -- protecting the populace rather than hunting the enemy. ... First-rate history of science here, and a fascinating look at Harry Harlow, a monkey researcher whose powerful but sometimes disturbing experiments in the middle decades of last century helped replace a cold behavioralist view of infancy and childhood with the theories of attachment and bonding that still rule today.
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:00 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Medicine
We can throw all the money we want at PTSD and continue to hire lots of therapists at the VA. But we won't get anywhere until we start asking why the PTSD problem takes such a unique course here in the U.S.
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 8:24 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: PTSD
Our current approach to post-combat distress is failing just as completely as the Rumsfled approach did. But in the halls that count, there's no sign a change in thinking.
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:35 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Matters military
"There's a reason that counterinsurgency mantras include Get Off The FOB and Don't Commute To The Fight. The greater the distance -- not just physically, but also culturally -- from a populace, the fewer opportunities U.S. troops have to demonstrate to that populace that U.S. actions are in their interest."
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:49 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
Much much much ado on the web this week, on the too-many fronts I try to visit. From my list of notables:
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 4:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Healthcare policy
At a time when we are much concerned with reducing PTSD in combat troops, it's valuable to learn that we could apparentlly cut the PTSD rate by more than 50% simply by keeping the least healthy 15% -- as measured by fairly simple health questionnaires we already have in any and -- out of combat zones. So why is this study going almost completely ignored?
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 4:00 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brains and minds
I often find it awkward to switch between blogging or twittering and engaging deeply immersive physical activities. This hiatus, for instance, started when I went fishing last Tuesday on Lake Champlain for salmon.
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 1:51 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Matters military
A concern with bogus POWs suggests I have a problem with -- well, bogus POWs. Should it not bother us when people masquerading as POWs are collecting benefits and kudos and sympathies they didn't earn — and which others earned through rather excruciating means?
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 7:32 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Matters military
Veteran, author, and blogger Kelly Williams, who was there, ponders what torture does to the torturers:
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 9:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science policy
As the comments and correspondence about my PTSD story and posts accrue, I've been pondering ways to pull out some of the most interesting, powerful, and affecting. I finally decided to just start posting some, sometimes with commentary, sometimes without. This is a story of many different colors and textures.
Read on »
Posted by David Dobbs at 10:07 PM • 0 Comments •
I write on science, medicine, nature, culture and other matters for the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, National Geographic, Scientific American Mind, and other publications. (Find 
