Posts by Tag

Tag: psychology

The Psychology of Gossip

Posted by Katherine Swanson

I have a confession. I am completely addicted to celebrity gossip. It all began when I bought my first copy of US weekly. I'm not sure how old I was but a cover story about the original "Bennifer" seduced me and I have been an addict ever since. I love the "stars, their just like us!" page where on any given week you can see Tom Hanks pumping gas and Lauren from The Hills eating fro-yo. I love the bad fashions in the back where almost every week Courtney Love is photographed prancing around LA is some outrageous get up. Most of all I love the "Hot Stuff" section where I can always get my weekly fix of trash-tastic celebrity hook ups with stories like "K-Fed texts Lindsay!” (PS: I’m not making any of these up; I have actually read all these stories.)

Two years ago I developed a "tolerance" for my addiction and knew that I needed to kick it up to the next level. Sick of being out of the loop from Sunday until Thursday (Us Weekly was always put out at the local Jewel grocery store Thu ... more »

Posted: October 19, 2007 12:44 pm | 1 comment
Tags: 12 steps, article, celebrities, gossip, New York Times, psychology, research

But how do you FEEL about that....

Posted by Katherine Swanson

First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of posting for the past few weeks. I got back from thanksgiving and then it was finals and then it was break and then classes started and I have felt uninspired. I’m sure you all understand. Anyways, let’s get on with it.

I read this article a few weeks ago about how the teachings of Sigmund Freud are taught in universities, but not in psychology classrooms. Humanities class, popular culture, and modern literature openly discuss Freud’s theories but psychology departments distance themselves from psychoanalysis. Apparently psychologists find him to be, “sexist, fraudulent, unscientific, and just plain wrong”. While “fraudulent” might be pushing it, ‘unscientific” is just fine by me.

I was first introduced to Mr. Freud my senior year of high school. Of course this introduction did not take place in a psychology class, but in an English class titled “Literature and Psychology”. Ms. Birdwell introduced our class to ... more »

Posted: February 10, 2008 5:25 pm | 0 comments
Tags: freud, New York Times, psychology, Science