Jacqueline Olds

The psychiatry of light.

AbstractBright light therapy and the broader realm of chronotherapy remain underappreciated and underutilized, despite their empirical support. Efficacy extends beyond seasonal affective disorder and includes nonseasonal depression and sleep disorders, with emerging evidence for a role in treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, delirium, and dementia. A practical overview is offered, including key aspects of underlying biology, indications for treatment, parameters of treatment, adverse effects, and transformation of our relationship to light and darkness in contemporary life.

The Use of Children's Religious Ideas in Their Psychiatric Evaluation.

Childrens religious ideas provide a source of projective material that can be relevant clinically in a childs psychiatric evaluation. Areas that are sometimes revealed include (1) information about the childs parental introjects; (2) level of superego formation; (3) level of defense formation; (4) areas that are most anxiety provoking for the child. This religious material is frequently ignored, but can be a particularly useful adjunct when the usual child-evaluative techniques do not reveal a complete picture.