Western culture in my opinion is an instant culture. Look through ads for example. ‘Lose weight in a week … Lose weight without any diet or exercise … Build your muscles in a month … Lose your cellulite in a fortnight etc.’ How often do you come across and ad like this: ‘Train daily for 5 years and you will improve your self-image.’ It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yes, definitely, but only to a Westerner. Traditional cultures have known for millenniums that the only true satisfaction comes from hard work and patience over years. To oppose my argument I...

These are the words of Joe Kraynak, who reviewed my book ‘Balancing the Beast’. Read the whole book review on PsychCentral. Joe Kraynak is a co-author of ‘Bipolar Disorder for Dummies’.

Since the weather showed us kindness by covering Slovenia with snow last weekend, I have been thinking about kindness as human virtue. I recall my teacher Phyllis Krystal saying at various occasions: ‘Respect people who serve you. Do not treat them like your own personal slaves.’ With these words in my mind I witnessed some verbal attacks at a post office, a library etc. These attacks were performed by people whose outbursts of anger clearly showed that the clerk was just a scape goat. The clerk did a minor mistake and the customer was yelling as if somebody had been murdered. We all need...