State mental health

An excellent article on the dismal state of mental health resources.

If you have a friend with mental illness, getting resources from the state will usually make the problem much worse, not better.  For those that I've talked to (especially in the South), these places are essentially prisons.  Even psychologists who have a legal requirement to notify the authorities if a patient threatens to harm themself or others strongly hesitate to do so, knowing it will make the problem worse.

Tragically, paranoid schizophrenia is a completely treatable illness.  However, if a loved one is suffering mental illness, seek private assistance.

Orson Wells on Cold Reading

A fascinating story about how the famous director was a fortune teller for a day and what he learned from it.

Changing behavior

Two enlightening articles on the nature of changing habits and combating addiction.

The sociopath next door

A disturbing but useful article that changed my opinion about people as a whole. Doing whatever you want with no guilt seems like it would be a kind of paradise, but it seems more like a trap.

Note that something this article doesn't clarify is that if someone lies chronically, it can be a symptom of a whole spectrum of mental or emotional problems, not necessarily because they are as morally corrupt as the people this article references.