Depression erodes intimate relationships. A depressed person can be withdrawn, needy, or hostile - and give little back.

But there's another way that depression isolates partners from each other. It chips away at the ability to perceive the others' thoughts and feelings. It impairs what psychologists call "empathic accuracy" - and that can exacerbate alienation, depression, and the cycle by which they feed each other.

Three Israeli researchers - Reuma Gadassi and Nilly Mor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Eshkol Rafaeli at Bar-Ilan University - wanted to understand better these dynamics in relationships, particularly the role of gender. Their study will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The study revealed a surprising dynamic: "It's called the partner effect," said Gadassi, a psychology graduate student. She explained: "Women's depression affects their own accuracy. But it also affected their partner's accuracy" - in both cases, negatively.

Fifty heterosexual couples - some married, some cohabiting, and together an average of about five years - participated in the study. First, a questionnaire assessed their levels of depression. Then, their interpersonal perceptions were tested both in the lab and in daily life.

Essays are being written, final exams are looming and classes are reaching their busy conclusion. With conflicting demands from work, home and the classroom, this hectic time of year can be filled with stress. But according to new research from the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), a little self-reflection could do us all a world of good.

"People need to ask themselves, 'What roles do I play?' and 'Are these roles working for me?'" says Julie McCarthy, associate professor of organizational behaviour at UTSC. "And if they're not working, we then need to ask, 'What are the strategies I'm using to make things better?'"

In her latest study, the UTSC associate professor of organizational behavior worked with Tracy Hecht of Concordia University to look at how undergraduate students attempted to achieve balance. All of the participants were UTSC students with jobs outside of school.

When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the "Aha!" moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory?

"Much of memory research involves repetitive, rote learning," says Kelly Ludmer, a research student in the group of Prof. Yadin Dudai of the Institute's Neurobiology Department, "but in fact, we regularly absorb large blocks of information in the blink of an eye and remember things quite well from single events. Insight is an example of a one-time event that is often well-preserved in memory."

"It's in your head - it has always been all in your head! Simon is a good man!" But even if a thousand people believe and voice a lie and rise to defend the predator, it still remains a lie. And yes, such confrontations take their toll both emotionally and physically, and Simon keeps count and gloats as his carefully trained cohorts score points by inflicting pain. In fact, Simon planned the psychological confusion, anxiety, stress and grief which ensued every time my children, friends and family attacked me. Tears ran, motivation dwindled, and insomnia set in; soon, a wide range of symptoms were warning me that chronic conditions would result if I didn't deal with issues.

Hence, I was forced to face my demons and ask the difficult questions: How could my older children forget who I am and what I stand for? How can nurturing relationships suddenly become toxic? How could law enforcement professionals be duped? It took me years to understand what obscure and brutal forces altered my life, relationships, and circumstances. I had to question and investigate my deepest held beliefs, as I believed in the inherent good in all people. This was, without a doubt, the most damaging fallacy of my upbringing. Now, I understand that psychopaths delight in inflicting hurt and harm; it is their sport to seek out easy prey.

As I searched for the truth, information came to me in the form of books that explained and validated my inner knowledge and gut feelings. Dr Robert Hare, claims that with at least 2 million psychopaths in North America, virtually everyone will fall victim to a predator sometime during their life (Without Conscience p.2). Kevin Hogan and James Speakman explain techniques of Covert Persuasion, and, Amy J.L. Baker wrote Breaking the Ties that Bind which relates how children can be programmed and conditioned to act as child soldiers against a targeted parent. Psychopaths seem to thoroughly understand these strategies; perhaps they are innate. Therefore, be warned: the predator will choose you at your lowest ebb, then he/she will sense what you need and provide it. He or she will use mind manipulation strategies in the form of sublimations, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and other rhetorical devices. Your own morals and values will be used to control you and hold you captive. Once ensnared and entrapped, the psychopath will feed off you causing irreversible harm and devastation; you will never be the same again. This is the story of my misadventure.

Washington - The pain of rejection is more than just a figure of speech.

The regions of the brain that respond to physical pain overlap with those that react to social rejection, according to a new study that used brain imaging on people involved in romantic breakups.

"These results give new meaning to the idea that rejection 'hurts,'"wrote psychology professor Ethan Kross of the University of Michigan and his colleagues. Their findings are reported in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Co-author Edward Smith of Columbia University explained that the research shows that psychological or social events can affect regions of the brain that scientists thought were dedicated to physical pain.

When we think of propaganda, we usually associate it with political messages. The thoroughly negative meaning of the term comes to us via the Nazis, whose slogans poisoned a whole nation. But it didn't end with fall of overtly overt fascist regimes post-WWII, of course. Political propaganda appeals to the emotions by attempting to implant suggestions which bypass the intellect. People eventually get wise to it, so the propaganda just becomes slicker.

Normally, spiritual propaganda and lies are going to fool only those who truly need fooling so that they learn an important lesson...at some point. That is, it satisfies a superficial emotional craving in those left so disappointed with politics. Such people are hovering on the threshold of understanding a deeper reality, but a lifetime of painful experiences within a system governed by pathology have left them unprepared for the soul-sweet traps sprung for them by the very system from which they wish to free themselves. Nothing can help them except a direct experience with self-destructive behavior.

But sometimes a piece of spiritual propaganda is so slick and clever and uses the discoveries of the billion-dollar research engines of the ad industry and psychological warfare bureaus to produce something capable of sucking in just about anyone with any semblance of an ego.

Now, some of us have spent a good portion of our lives keeping an eye on these kinds of things. We can spot a manipulation a mile away. The 'Wayseer' video is, in my opinion, one such manipulation. And rather than let it pass without comment in the hope that it would simply die the death of so many other noxious 'New Age' fads, I figured it was worth the time and energy to point out the problems.

As the saying goes, "The only thing Evil needs to succeed is for good people to do nothing."

Please note...

I'm not trying to change your mind. If you like being manipulated by pseudo-scientific catch-phrases and a catchy tune that tells you "you're special!" then that's your choice. But don't forget that, in order to truly choose, you need as much data as possible about any given subject. The main reason I have chosen to write on this topic therefore is to provide that extra data and to address the imbalance in the 'playing field' of the information war for your mind.

What follows is a transcript of the 'Wayseer' video with my comments interspersed.

Saying a prayer may help many people feel less angry and behave less aggressively after someone has left them fuming, new research suggests.

A series of studies showed that people who were provoked by insulting comments from a stranger showed less anger and aggression soon afterwards if they prayed for another person in the meantime.

The benefits of prayer identified in this study don't rely on divine intervention: they probably occur because the act of praying changed the way people think about a negative situation, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

"People often turn to prayer when they're feeling negative emotions, including anger," he said.

"We found that prayer really can help people cope with their anger, probably by helping them change how they view the events that angered them and helping them take it less personally."

The power of prayer also didn't rely on people being particularly religious, or attending church regularly, Bushman emphasized. Results showed prayer helped calm people regardless of their religious affiliation, or how often they attended church services or prayed in daily life.

Bushman noted that the studies didn't examine whether prayer had any effect on the people who were prayed for. The research focused entirely on those who do the praying.

Do you respond to stress with a fiery growl or a cold shoulder? Yoga can transform your reactions, improve your health, and help you embody grace under pressure.

Meet Mark: When something stressful happens, he feels energized. His heart races, his senses heighten - he even feels as though his thoughts speed up. Mark prides himself on his ability to face problems head-on, but he admits that it's becoming difficult to turn this intensity off. Lately he's been feeling more on edge than on top of his game. He's developed headaches and insomnia, and he's beginning to wonder if they're related to stress. He'd like to feel better, but he can't imagine himself changing his full-throttle approach to life. Without stress, how would he ever get anything done?

Mark's wife, Sue, doesn't feel energized by stress - it exhausts her. She feels so depleted by stress that she's begun to cut back on the things that generate the most stress, such as planning big family gatherings. To maintain her composure, she tries to walk away when conflicts arise. She's even considering leaving her challenging job to find something less intense. Sue proudly sees in herself the ability to "just let things go," which she's been cultivating through her yoga practice.

But even though she's simplified her life, she's been feeling depressed. She has a nagging feeling that her attempts to be stress free are getting in the way of fully living her life. Mark and Sue are characters based on real people, and are designed to represent two real responses to stress - one or both of which may seem familiar to you. As Mark and Sue are discovering, stress is inescapable, but it is also paradoxical: While excess stress can take a toll on you, the very things that cause it are often the same things that make life rewarding and full. Take a moment to think about the pressures in your life: family, work, having too much to do. Now imagine a life without those things. Sound ideal? Not likely. Most people don't want an empty life; they want to possess the skills to handle a busy and, yes, even complicated life.

A new study offers the strongest evidence to date that meditation can change the structure of your brain.

I consider myself something of a prospective meditator - meaning that a serious meditation practice is always something I'm about to start... next week.

So for years, I've been making a mental note of new studies showing that meditation can literally change our brain structure in ways that might boost concentration, memory, and positive emotions.

The results seem enticing enough to make anyone drop into the full lotus position - until you read the fine print: Much of this research involves people who have meditated for thousands of hours over many years; some of it zeroes in on Olympic-level meditators who have clocked 10,000 hours or more. Pretty daunting.

Well, a new study offers some hope - and makes the benefits of meditation seem within reach even for a novice like me.

We hold many beliefs about memory - for instance, if you study more, you learn more. We are also constantly making judgments about particular instances of learning and remembering - I'll never forget this party! That was easy to understand. I'll ace it on the test.

But do beliefs influence judgments, and how do judgments affect memory performance? "There's a disconnect among beliefs, judgments, and actual memory," says Williams College psychologist Nate Kornell. Ask people to predict how or what they will learn and "in many situations, they do a breathtakingly bad job."

Why? A new study by Kornell - with Matthew G. Rhodes of Colorado State University, Alan D. Castel of University of California/Los Angeles, and Sarah K. Tauber of Kent State University - posits that we make predictions about memory based on how we feel while we're encountering the information to be learned, and that can lead us astray. The study will be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.