Columnists, In Person
Why Words Matter in Life and Politics
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
If ever there were any doubt that words matter, the July assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the killing of an innocent bystander as well as the shooter provide more...
When we learned to listen: The legacy of Elvin Semrad
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
Over more than three decades of writing this column, from time to time, I have quoted Dr. Elvin Semrad whom I briefly described as “the late Boston psychoanalyst.” I...
Some things I learned along the way
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
If it’s true that the biggest surprise you’ll ever have is to realize that you’ve grown old, then the second biggest is to believe that you have learned something useful...
Reflections on Totality
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
Words are the first to go.
When all that is left of the sun is a circle of light surrounding the black disk of the moon, you are reduced to simple instructions and...
Limping with the bulls: A psychologist tests the market
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
Things are quiet this morning and my heart is beating at its usual steady rate. The adrenaline that was coursing through my body yesterday at this time has subsided with the...
Psychologists and poets
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
Apri is National Poetry Month, and psychologists everywhere are writing poetry.
With Wordsworth they are recollecting intense emotion in tranquility
and helping...
My life with telescopes
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
“You have a telescope! Use it much? What can you see? Can we take it outside and look at the moon?” Our visitor is asking about the telescope in the corner or our living...
Unplugged
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
I am writing today by the dim light filtering into the room from a troubled sky. The rain has been constant since yesterday and the trees, stripped of their leaves, sway with...
On growing old gracefully – or not
By Alan Bodnar Ph.D.
As I sit at my desk in a too quiet house, I am thinking about my wife who is spending the day with a friend on a senior citizens’ bus trip to view the New England countryside...