Hey &#39;Revenge&#39; writers: be careful how you portray mental illness

Hey 'Revenge' writers: be careful how you portray mental illness

Date: May 2, 2012 - 7:52AM

What the hell is with the Tyler Barrol character in <i>Revenge</i>?

What the hell is with the Tyler Barrol character in Revenge?

I love television, everything from Mad Men to Game of Thrones to sitcoms like New Girl. Lately, I’ve been watching the latest hit drama to come from the States, Revenge, along with about 2 million other Australians, apparently.
It’s got everything; sex, drama, swapped identities, bitchy mother-in-laws… and you could play a serious drinking game with all the meaningful glances and the staring-apprehensively-over-the-shoulder-of-the-person-you-are-hugging-because-you-are-hiding-such-a-terrible-secret-ness of it all.
But one thing is really bothering me – and at the risk of sounding too PC I think I should call them on it.

Five-star divorce

9:39 PG

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Fairfax Media

Five-star divorce

Date: April 28, 2012

Freedom … for some, a visit to the Divorce Hotel is a reason to celebrate.

Jim Halfens launched his “divorce hotel” concept in the Netherlands on February 14, 2010. The businessman thought a Valentine’s Day launch was fitting for his brainchild – a “more positive” alternative to the standard divorce model. In Divorce Hotels, Dutch couples check in on Friday afternoon, sleep in separate rooms, and by Sunday night have agreed on support payments, property division and custody arrangements. The divorce is finalised, pursuant to Dutch law, with a mere formality, when the settlement documents are presented to a judge. (Prices start from €2499, roughly $3150.)

When your friends lust after your partner

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When your friends lust after your partner

Date: May 14, 2012 - 8:01AM

"The idea that other women might find him attractive really hadn’t occurred to me at all."

The other day, I heard some news about my husband that surprised me an awful lot.
“Oh my god your husband’s hot,” a female friend said to me. And then - before I could check that she was talking about the right husband – she pointed straight at him and added, “I would do him for sure.”
I nearly fell over (and not just because we’d had a couple of drinks). My husband is hot? Really? I mean... it’s not that I don’t consider my husband to be attractive. He obviously does something for me or I wouldn’t have married him. But I kind of assumed that my man was uniquely to my taste. The idea that other women might find him attractive really hadn’t occurred to me at all.

Compromising positions

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Compromising positions

Date: May 23, 2012 - 9:05AM

"[Relationships] are terrifying because when we are in them, we are completely exposed as our true self to another human being." Photo: Getty Images

Okay, everyone. If you read this website I presume you have heard of a woman, Bettina Arndt? Yes? If not please Google "Bettina Arndt + sex + men", and lots of stuff will come up and you can make up your own mind regarding her opinions on men and women and sex. Just kidding! I'm here to put my own spin on it and so will help make up your mind for you! Please do not think that you could be so stupid as to do your own reading and draw your own conclusions. You are a girl (probably!), don't forget.

Why is self-harm spreading?

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Why is self-harm spreading?

Date: May 24, 2012 - 7:45AM

We still don’t have all the information about why self-harm happens, and who is doing it.

Self-harm can spread like a virus through friendship networks. And now, new research shows it seems to be spreading throughout NSW.
As I reveal in the Herald today, figures released on the Health Statistics NSW website* show the rate of people being hospitalised for self-harm has more than doubled in NSW over the past 10 years.
And the driver? Young women, where rates increased from 145 hospitalisations for self-harm for every 100,000 women aged between 15 and 24 in 1991, to 352 in 2010.

Improving couples’ attachment security, intimacy, stability and satisfaction

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Improving couples’ attachment security, intimacy, stability and satisfaction

June 2012 | Knowledge Share

Barry G. Ginsberg

Working with couples and families requires a different stance from working with individuals. I like that I can experience the relationship dynamics directly by being in the same room with the couple. It’s so different seeing the dynamics in action as opposed to having one individual describe it to you from her or his view. With couples work, you can witness how quickly one person’s response is cued by the other. Before you know it — before the couple knows it, for that matter — they launch into defensiveness and negativity almost as if you weren’t there. When you try to mediate, it either makes it worse or they both become angry with you. It quickly escalates.
I have learned to cope with this by acknowledging from the beginning that the relationship (or as Harville Hendrix has called it, the “in-between”) is my client. I like to think of it as a circle, the reciprocal nature of all relationships — in this case, close and intimate relationships.