You probably already know by now that I have a weekly podcast called Being Human. 

In recent episodes, I've been venturing into what some might consider dangerous territory these days. (The fact that this subject has become such a controversial issue is baffling.)

The month of March is designated in the U.S. as "Women's History Month" - a month-long celebration of the contributions and accomplishments of women.

Throughout her history, the Church has also celebrated the contributions  of many incredible, beautiful, passionate and holy women to our world. Coincidentally, it is during this month that we celebrate one of the greatest "accomplishments" by any woman ever. 

On March 25th, we celebrate a major feast day, the Solemnity of the...

Let’s begin with an “opening crawl” of caveats:

FULL SPOILER ALERT. I’m going to be delving into some of the characters and plot points of Episode 7 from a psychological perspective, so if you haven’t seen it, get to the theater and come back and read!

• I’m presuming that you are at least somewhat familiar with the franchise and can recall some of the major details of the earlier episodes.
• I loved the film. It is refreshing to have Star Wars back on...

You might be surprised to learn that the final post in the series about feminine brain strengths is actually about worry. As a psychologist, I rarely talk about worry as a strength.

I should qualify here that I am talking about a little worry, not to be confused with the excessive worry that constitutes anxiety.

In fact, I don’t even like using the word worry, but there is great value in being able to see certain tendencies as part of a spectrum and not necessarily entirely different...

Let's go through a few statistical facts about women:

• As of 10 years ago, only 7% of the entire prison population in the US was female.
• There is a significantly higher rate of Antisocial Personality Disorder among men as compared to women. 
• Research shows that women are better at keeping strong negative emotions in check; when a woman does act on her negative emotions, she will more often attack verbally rather than physically.
• In general, women tend to live longer than men. 

...

On the train this morning on the way into the office there was a female conductor. I’ve travelled with a female conductor driving the train once before, and both times ended the same way. On the intercom as we reached our destination, the conductor concluded her comments with, “Have a great day everyone, and thank you crew for your work.” The only two times the conductor thanked the crew in the past two months were the two times the conductor was female – and they were...

We continue the series this week on differences in the female brain that give it an edge over the male brain in particular functions. Last time I talked about intuition and the neural networking of white matter that allows for a greater reach across different areas of the brain and more sources of information.

This post is about empathy. Empathy is the ability to recognize and share in other peoples’ experiences. It is the ability to “put yourself in someone else’s...

With today’s post I am starting a series on the female brain. Fortunately there is a ton of research out there to rely on instead of just offering musings from my own experience. I don’t know how much experience is required for a man to feel competent on his own to comment on the female brain, but I assure you I have not reached it. Instead I will be relying on the work of Dr. Daniel Amen, among others, who has compiled the world’s largest databases of SPECT brain images...

Before I transferred to Franciscan University, I was a freshman at Boston College. My good friend Colin was in seminary next door at St. John’s, and we used to exercise together at BC’s workout facility called the Plex. That was the Jubilee year and a time of deep conversion for me. Colin and I encouraged each other in becoming better men of God in many ways that year. Along with our workouts, one of our most important exercises in virtue also took place at the gym.

The weight...

I was going to post this week on how to be a man.  There’s a lot that our Church teaches about manhood and virtue, the Theology of the Body is brimming over with lessons to learn, and I certainly have endless examples from therapy of the suffering caused by a lack of manhood.  I realized though that every week there is a new “5 ways to…” post on everything from dating tips to how to strap in a baby in a car seat.  I think they’re great, and...