Rebooting as psychic surgery

Recovery from any addiction is an intense time in a person’s life. Recovery is akin to an overhaul of the personality. Its a kind of psychic surgery that a recovering addict is forced to perform on him/herself by what seems like the cruel hands of a god. It is a time of intense personal growth […]

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Neural foundations of imagery (2001)

Mental imagery has, until recently, fallen within the purview of philosophy and cognitive psychology. Both enterprises have raised important questions about imagery, but have not made substantial progress in answering them. With the advent of cognitive neuroscience, these questions have become empirically tractable. Neuroimaging studies, combined with other methods (such as studies of brain-damaged patients […]

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Soothing Fantasy

Every now and then one of the visitors here recovering from heavy porn use says something like, “Last night, instead of fantasizing about porn scenarios, I visualized holding a woman. It felt good and I fell asleep easily.” It makes sense that if focus on “wanting” revs up dopamine and restlessness, that focus on satiety […]

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