Archetype Writing Blog

New Article: Misconceptions about "Split" and Multiple Personalities
Summary: Looks at common myths and mistakes writers make when incorporating "split" or multiple personalities into their fiction. Also looks at how multiple personalities are different from schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

New Article: Sociopaths
Summary: Differenting sociopaths from psychopaths, common sociopathic traits, and types of sociopaths.

New Article: Personality Disorders
Summary: A brief description of each of the 10 Personality Disorders

I have belonged to seven different gyms in my life, and either society is changing or I'm choosing bad gyms, because the last two seem to be selling eating disorders.

I left the last one because a personal trainer repeatedly advocated vomiting as an appropriate way to "get thin" and look "sexy." And to hear him tell it, all women should be doing their darndest to look sexy for him. (He was so not hot, just in case you're wondering.)

I complained to management and got a blank look. I explained some more. I got this uncomfortable look that suggested the fellow was a little embarrassed for me and my complaint. So I told the guy that I was a psychologist and that it was not ok with me to belong to a gym that was advocating eating disorders, especially so blatantly. That got a reaction, but only because suddenly I wasn't just some poor dumb little girl with a silly complaint, I was a doctor and all that might entail.

I ended up talking with several other people in charge, but I never felt like anybody really cared that there was a trainer running around telling young women to throw up. The folks in charge just wanted to placate the Doctor and get her to hush up. The trainer in question was not only not let go, he made my visits to the gym uncomfortable, and I overheard him continuing the same old schtick to his trainees.

So I quit the gym.

They occasionally call me or send me mail asking me to come back. I don't think I could go back and maintain my self-respect. They refuse to hear that.

So I joined a new gym. They built a Gold's gym on the corner near my house, and I thought -- excellent, convenient and not a fitness "club" like the last one. Maybe there will be less emphasis on personal training and unhealthy behaviors.

Man, did I have that wrong.

This gym (which is now Urban Active, still owned by the same company) shows videos on huge flat screens all over the place -- there's even a massive screen over the front desk that can be seen by people driving by. There are a few smaller screens scattered around the gym that show a constant series of advertisements.

But the videos.

All of the videos seem to feature mostly-naked women writhing around on chairs, the floor, each other, the walls, and especially on men. Enough that I start wondering if some of them might not benefit from anti-seizure medications.

I realize that people have been complaining about music videos since MTV first played Video Killed the Radio Star, but there is a distinctly different flavor to the videos they play at this gym than anywhere else I've ever worked out. Most of the music is (fully-clothed) male artists with the obligatory writhing scenery. Once in a while you see Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, or (shudder) The Pussycat Dolls, but again, they've chosen the slinkiest, sexiest videos they can find.


For all the teaching I do on eating disorders, I still find myself filled with self-loathing as I try in vain to escape from all those video screens during my workout. I know that only 5% of women have that naturally thin physique and only 8% have an hourglass figure. I know that many, many of the models, actresses, and singers (and increasingly, the men, as well) in Hollywood are anorexic, bulimic, compulsive overexercisers, and otherwise engaging in ridiculously unhealthy measures. I know that they are often weak and exhausted from not eating properly and trying to maintain unrealistic weights. And I know that the death rate for eating disorders is one of the highest for any psychological disorder, and that half of those deaths are from suicide. So thin definitely doesn't equal happy.

But those videos are still trying to convince me that the only things that might make me a worthwhile person are being thin and pornographically sexy.

I was raised by someone who told me she jogged because it made her feel strong and competent, so to me that's what exercise should do -- make you feel good about yourself. As a psychologist, I know that helping women experience embodiment -- feeling attached to your body as a strong, effective machine -- is key to helping them live happier, healthier lives.

I just wish my gym knew that. And cared enough to do something about it.

New Article: How to Choose the Best Agent For You - by Sophfronia Scott, "The Book Sistah"
Summary: Recently I've had a few writers seek me out for consultation because they were dealing with the fortunate mishap of having more than one agent interested in their work. That may sound fantastic if you haven't been able to get anything other than single sheet rejections in your mailbox, but these writers found themselves feeling like the dog chasing cars who finally caught one! What to do now?

New Article: Dealing with the Doubt Demon by Dara Girard
Summary: The doubt demon loves artists. This sensitive bunch of individuals falls prey to it so easily, from cartoonist Charles Schulz to writer Virginia Woolf. Many writers ask themselves: Am I good enough? Am I wasting my time? If I was really talented I would be (published, successful, rich) by now. The doubt demon can only be conquered by a concerted effort to give it as little attention as possible. Not just by you, but by the people around you.

Yes, I think this officially constitutes a series at this point. I've also ranted about

• Martini Therapy: Alcoholism as a Fashion Statement Part I


• Beer & Whiskey Therapy: Alcoholism as a Fashion Statement Part II

I found a book while I was browsing at a discount store yesterday: Cocktail Therapy: The Perfect Prescription for Life's Many Crises. The back said, I kid you not:

Forget crying into your beer. When calamity strikes there's a perfect cocktail to ease your woes. During their bartending years, Leanne Shear and Tracey Toomey were often witness to all kinds of personal crises. And while others may take refuge with their therapist or on the racquetball court, Leanne and Tracey concluded that the quickest way to beat the blues is with a delicious drink (or two). That hot guy from last week still hasn't called? Try a Pomegranate Martini -- bold, tasty, but not so lethal that you'll be tempted to drunk dial him. Gain a few pounds? Indulge in a (nearly) guiltless Sugar-Free Mojito. Credit card bill contains a few nasty surprises? A decadent Bourbon Bee Sting will leave you feeling like a million dollars. As dependable as a good friend and guaranteed not to utter a single "I told you so," Cocktail Therapy proves that when life hands you lemons, the best thing to do is make a rum-soaked Tropical Lemonade.

The book actually suggests you forget healthy coping skills like talking to a therapist (or friend) or working out to deal with your stress. Nope, you should drink instead. And you should drink for every problem!

Drinking to deal with problems is what lands you in AA...if you're lucky. If you're not lucky, it lands you in the morgue because you drank and drove, or just because you pickled your internal organs. And alcoholism doesn't just affect you. It affects everyone around you, especially your family. And your kids.

The Question: What sort of mental problems would clones develop? Humans believe that clones are not human because they have no soul. Clones have the potential of gene mutation and therefore could be born monsters.

The Question: Can a person have two completely opposite sides to their personality and still perform adequately? I am discovering my protagonist has two sides to him; he is able to separate them until he has a break through, or a break down, and is able to 'join' the two personalities. Is this feasible?

Q: What would it take to set off a killing spree in 2 angry teenage misfits? Would the more people they kill the more they go insane? Would their fractured mental state and loose view on morals be obvious?

Another tragedy, another search for an explanation. And it always seems to start with "what flavor of crazy was he?

Maybe he was crazy, colloquially. I'll buy that. But just because someone does something we don't understand doesn't mean they're clinically diagnosable with a darn thing. Even when they do something as horrifying and bizarre as shoot innocent people. "Psychopathy and crime are not identical," writes Alv Dahl, although "a considerable proportion of [psychopaths], especially men, have committed crimes."

Sometimes it's a medical problem, like Charles Whitman, who killed 14 people and wounded 31 more at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966. The autopsy he asked for in his suicide note revealed a cancerous brain tumor pressing against the amygdala -- a part of the brain that affects aggressive urges.

Here's what gets me, though. Even if the individual had mental health problems, why on earth would they want to seek treatment for them? Especially if they're bad -- someone might send them to the "nuthouse"!




Stick with me here for a minute. The media is incredibly stigmatizing in their description of people who have psychological disoders, and especially when they talk about psychiatric treatment wards. Britney was dragged off to the "looney bin," Uma's stalker "says no to the nuthouse." And even Northern Illinois University shooter Stephen Kazmierczak "stopped taking medication" before the shooting.




Not that anybody has deigned to tell us what that medication might be. I mean, was he taking antipsychotics or ibuprofen here? Regardless -- the implication is clear -- he must have been taking crazy people drugs.

Does that make you want to take those meds if your doctor suggests them? Of course not. You're not a crazy person

I was walking out of the local grocery store today when I saw a New York tabloid with a headline that screamed NUTS! And they weren't talking about cashews. No, it was a lurid story about how the "East Side Butcher...vicious[ly] hacke[ed] beloved psychologist" Kathryn Faughey to death. He was allegedly her patient, and she was a respected member of the American Psychological Association.

The subhead says "Crazy law bars cops from files on shrink's patients."



Ok, so one person flips out and all psychological files should be readily available to the police and, of course, the public? Only 20% of people seek care for psychological problems (and I'm talking about run-of-the mill depression and anxiety here [if you can ever call that kind of pain run-of-the-mill]) because they're terrified of the stigma.

Don't get me wrong. Those records need to be available to the police, and our ethics laws need some work. A similar murder in California went unsolved because the client records were sealed and kept out of the investigation. But the crazy headline bothers me.

So here's the real irony. This is important.

Most people who need psychiatric care don't get it because they're afraid of being stigmatized.

The news stories blaring about how crazy these people are are part of what's keeping the people who need it most from getting care.

The problem is not that there are these evil people skulking around in society under the mask of normalcy, plotting with cunning intelligence how to hurt others -- that's what psychologist and research Roy Baumeister calles "the myth of pure evil." No, people who have something wrong with them -- even something seriously wrong with them -- don't want to be treated badly anymore than you or I do. (There's a reason all these shooters kill themselves before they get caught.) So they don't seek help when they need it.

Well, most of them. Some do. But you know what? You need money to get decent mental health care, and usually you need a lot of it. Our social services in this country will run someone around in circles for months and even years before they can get the care they need. Getting medications people know they need (and even want) to take can be nearly impossible, between the red tape and the exorbitant cost of these medications. People get desperate. That by no means excuses their behavior, but it does put it in context.

Andrew Goldstein had schizophrenia and had repeatedly sought treatment from the social services available to him. He couldn't get the medication he needed, so when he pushed Kendra Webdale off a subway platform and into the path of an oncoming train, he wasn't taking any. When asked by a reporter why he did it, he said, "You think I can get some help now? Because every time I go they say nothing's wrong with me and they let me go."

But they don't tell you that part in most of the news articles.



It's easier to believe Goldstein was pure evil, skulking along pretending to be normal. It's reached the point that some people believe that's what "schizophrenia" is. (It's not, it's a biological disorder that causes the brain to function incorrectly, often leading to strange behavior and perceptual experiences, like hallucinations. Most people with schizophrenia are not dangerous to other people.)

So what flavor of crazy was Stephen Kazmierczak? Only time will tell. But pay attention to the way the media writes about it and think for yourself -- how many people are going to decide to avoid treatment because they're afraid of being labeled crazy or sent to the nuthouse?

I've created a new sub-section in the Resources part of the site called Downloads. The section will be used to provide writers with quick-reference resources and worksheets to help them incorporate psychology into their writing.

All downloads and worksheets are in PDF format for high-quality printing, and they may be freely reproduced for personal and educational purposes, as long as the copyright information stays in the footer.

Though I converted a couple of worksheets I'd created to go along with articles and included them in the section, I've also added something new -- a Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers.

Have a suggestion for other worksheets or downloads you'd find helpful? Send me an email through the Contact link on Archetype's home page (in the menu at left).

New Article: Literary Agents - 9 mistakes to avoid
Summary: These days literary agents and book publishers don't have the time to critique your query letter or manuscript. They won't even tell you why you got rejected to allow you to do better next time. Let me give you the inside scoop of the top 9 reasons a query letter submission gets rejected. Use the list to check your next submission BEFORE it goes out!

New Article: Avoiding Publishing and Agent Scams
Summary: Agents and publishers will make money if an author's writing is successful. Publisher's will get their money either after sales or up front. Agents get their cut after the royalties come in on the author's sold book. If they do a good job, both deserve and earn what they make. The problem is with the publishers and/or agents who are not ethical, who take money without doing the job for the writer.

New Article: How To Spice Up Your Writing With Dialogue
Summary: If your aim your book at agents and publishers, the first action acquisition editors make is to find a section of dialogue. If it is good, they start reading the rest of your book. It is difficult to put just the right words into dialogue--to convey character and emotion. Some tips to help you avoid props or tricks and be professional.

New Article: A Writer's Editing Checklist
Summary: There are many things to look at prior to sending your work out. Here are some checklists to use when you've finished editing your story so you know it is at its most polished best.

New Article: Avoiding 19 Nervous Breakdowns
Summary: Most writers' first responsibility, when you think about it, is catching an editor's attention. After it's caught, they not only have to keep it, but also develop a relationship that makes that editor their best friend. An editor's worst nightmare is sitting at their desk, staring at a pile of unpolished manuscripts all doomed to fill up the circular file. Rejecting them all is the equivalent of a mass staff-firing! So, polishing your work is necessary and there is a knack to successfully editing your own work. It is not an easy task and there is no room for slacking once the rough draft is finished.

New Article: The Line Between Good and Evil Lies in the Human Heart: Philip Zimbardo's Prison Experiment & The Lucifer Effect

Summary: An overview of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, along with discussion of Phil Zimbardo's new book, The Lucifer Effect, and his comments on it at a recent talk.

New Article: Fearfighter: A Video Game to Fight Phobias
Summary: Information on the cutting-edge British Computer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CCBT) "game," Fearfighter

Also -- I've added updates to both the DeviantArt and the PostSecret Visual Prompts sections.

Even if you avoid tabloid rumors like the plague, you probably know all about Britney's latest troubles.

The front of People magazine has a picture of her from better years, and below the looming headline that you can't miss from anywhere in the supermarket: MENTAL ILLNESS.

As is usually the case, though, the terms are all tossed together into a hodgepodge that makes little sense, and none of it is flattering.

On January 3rd, Britney was taken from her home on a gurney after a disagreement with police about returning her children to her ex-husband.

A "Psycho Psychotic Mental Patient"

According to US Weekly:

"She went completely psycho," says an eyewitness. "They had to strap her down like a mental patient. She was going between laughing and crying hysterically. A total psychotic breakdown."

First, what exactly does "psycho" mean? Nothing except "bizarre." Which, you have to admit, kind of fits the situation, even if it is a bit of a slur. And "mental patient"? Means the same thing, and my issue is not that the speaker is suggesting Britney is out of control and needed to be strapped down, it's the suggestion that everyone with a psychological problem is and does.

And "psychotic" means a complete disconnection from reality as other people experience it. That may also be the case with Britney, but there's no real evidence from news reports that she was, for example, hearing voices or seeing things (ie having hallucinations) and it's not clear whether she was having ideas not based at all in shared ideas of reality (ie delusions).

It really bothers me when people toss around such loaded words without thinking about it. Why? Because, for example, if someone takes an "antipsychotic," everyone thinks things like "psycho killer" and "crazy psycho Britney" without understanding that some people take them as antidepressants and have never had a psychotic episode in their lives! And even if they have, it's because something is wrong with their brain chemistry, not because they chose to have problems, anymore than someone chooses to have cancer.

An Ambulance to the Hospital

And the fact that she was taken in an ambulance -- let me explain what happens when someone needs to be taken to the hospital for a psychological assessment. If the emergency folks on the scene determine that someone is an immediate danger to herself (ie suicidal) or to someone else (ie homicidal), they can mandate a trip to the hospital for an assessment. Typically the person gets plenty of chances to say "ok," including being told that they can be forced to go in handcuffs if they choose to really make a scene.

In most cases, people choose to go. After all, there's no guarantee they're going to be admitted, they're just going to be checked out so someone can make an informed decision about whether they're dangerous. (When doctors have admitting privileges, that makes the process quicker, partly because it's darn hard to commit someone in the US, especially against their will. Sometimes the hospital will say "Sorry, we have no place to put them. You're going to have to deal with it or find another hospital." But this is Britney. I'm sure they had no problems finding someone to assess her.)

Since there were fire and ambulance rescue personnel on site, it's not uncommon to use an ambulance to transport, especially when most of the media on the Western seaboard are flying over taking pictures. The goal is to stigmatize as little as possible. And you have to admit, going in an ambulance is less stigmatizing than going in the back of a police car.

According to the article in US, "Police offered her a choice of leaving in a cop car or an ambulance."

Britney might have issues, but she knew what to do when offered that choice!

It does sound like they pink-slipped to keep an eye on her, but the time she was kept for was so brief that in spite of all the reports that they had her on suicide watch, that's highly unlikely. She would never have been allowed to leave the hospital the next morning if anyone truly believed she was likely to walk out and kill herself. Emergency personnel have explained this to the media, but I guess that doesn't make such a good story. (US says, "LAPD officer Sara Faden explains the medical stay, which can be as long as 72 hours, to Us: 'Medical professionals attend the person and determind that they are not going to harm themselves or others. The person may be released earlier if it is determined they are no longer a danger." Or never were a suicide risk to start, no matter how much more exciting the story might have been if they were.)

Let me also note there that no matter how bizarre or erratic someone's behavior is, if they're an adult, in the United States they cannot be kept in a hospital against their will unless they are an immediate danger to themselves or someone else. (You can read more about suicide assessments on the Archetype site.) So if you're wondering why someone doesn't just get Britney some help...they literally can't, unless she does become suicidal, and nothing except rumor suggests that; the fact that she was kept for less than 12 hours in the hospital says she's not even hinting at suicidality.

Then, as everyone knows, Dr. Phil showed up. This just makes me want to bang my head on the wall, because everything I see suggests that he's making the most of a media situation to get himself publicity. That opinion went from tentative to very firm when I saw that Dr. Phil was forced to "cancel a hoped-for Spears family reunion for his Dr. Phil Now show, stating that the situation was 'too intense at this time.'" In other words, she didn't want nothin' to do with it. Or him. Neither would I if I had even an inkling that someone who's supposedly in the helping profession might exploit me and my family.

Dr. Phil Arrives

Dr. Phil apparently told Entertainment Tonight that "I've been working with this family behind the scenes for a long time."

Going well, ain't it? Keep up the good work, Phil.

Dr. Phil, and I'll try to keep this brief, got thrown out of psychology by our governing body, the APA, for misrepresenting psychology to the world. They asked him to note that what he does on TV is entertainment, because it's nothing like therapy. He refused, and they had to throw him out for what amounts to fraud. So whatever "work" he's doing isn't kosher by psychology's handbook.

And that's the problem. What most people believe to be psychology...isn't. At all. The client/patient comes first, and therapists listen rather than boss you around. Don't we all get bossed around enough at work and at home and by people we don't even know? Why would we pay someone to do more of it? I have my students do an exercise where they imagine Dr. Phil giving them advice for a problem they haven't been able to solve. After having over 100 students do it, only one has come out of the exercise with a fix. Granted, that's 1 person who's life is better, but it's also 1%, and that's a rotten success rate for anything. In fact, it's far less than the rate of improvement left to time or chance alone.

So What's Wrong with Britney?

Anyhow. So what's wrong with Britney? There's been a lot of talk of bipolar disorder, and I've seen some suggestions that she has borderline personality disorder. The fact that her erratic behavior doesn't seem to be caused (for the most part) by drugs, one does have to wonder about mania. Here are the critieria for mania (from the DSM-IV-TR):

A. A distinct period of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, lasting at least 1 week (or any duration if hospitalization is necessary).

B. During the period of mood disturbance, three (or more) of the following symptoms have persisted (four if the mood is only irritable) and have been present to a significant degree:
(1) inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
(2) decreased need for sleep (e.g., feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
(3) more talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
(4) flight of ideas [ideas jumping from one thing to the next very quickly, or thoughts are moving very fast] or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
(5) distractibility (i.e., attention too easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli)
(6) increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation [jitteriness or fidgetiness]
(7) excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

C. The mood disturbance is sufficiently severe to cause marked impairment in occupational functioning or in usual social activities or relationships with others, or to necessitate hospitalization to prevent harm to self or others, or there are psychotic features.

D. The symptoms are not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication, or other treatment) or a general medical condition (e.g., hyperthyroidism).

And here are the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (also from the DSM-IV-TR), which is often comorbid with Bipolar disorder (some say in about 1/3 of cases):

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.
(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation
(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self
(4) impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, Substance Abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).
(5) recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior
(6) affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria [sadness or sad mood], irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
(7) chronic feelings of emptiness
(8) inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)
(9) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

So what's actually wrong with Britney? I'm not sure. Some of it may be the fact that she has a lot of money and her star status gives her a lot of freedoms. But yes, it does look like maybe some of the things listed above fit her situation.