Carol Smaldino

One definition of memorialize is: preserve the memory of; to commemorate. And then for commemorate we have: recall and show respect for (someone or something) in a ceremony; serve as a memorial to. And leading up to the idea of the contradictions that come to us with Memorial Day, we...

Few who know about the worlds of ADD and ADHD would dispute the notion that the major leader in the field -- in terms of time and effort, teaching and achievement in general -- is Edward Hallowell, M.D., who now has clinics in the Boston area and in New York...

Earth Day wasn't meant to be just a day of special import, but as many such special days it was and is an opportunity to celebrate the importance of uniting to appreciate and heal the planet that is presently our home. In this spirit, I write the day after an...

It's called empathy. And without it some votes will be won, and some women will be seduced by one leader or another saying, for the most part that he "gets" what the plight and glory and heroism are in let's say, motherhood. Empathy, when not a hollow cry, is much...

I am aiming the question first at mental health practitioners since the idea of helping people towards sanity and well-being has been supported by the principle of doing no harm. As I see it, our own ethical obligations include looking openly and critically at the human rights considerations of our...

What if we took some of Albert Einstein's words to heart and as more than a cool quote or a greeting card: Specifically I am referring to his having allegedly said that it was not so much that he was he was so brilliant per se, but more importantly...

In the Occupy movement, on Wall Street most dramatically, some people grabbed hold of the concept and realities of imbalances of wealth and infused already present economic concerns with worries about the divisive nature of our economic systems taken for granted for some time. To "Occupy" the Jewish holiday of...

Just yesterday, a New Jersey jury found the spying by Dharun Ravi of Tyler Clementi a hate crime. Many feel this will be a message to youth about how serious Internet maliciousness can be. My worry is it will only push people to be more devious. Here's some of why.

It's not so often that we get to consider being ambivalent as something of a luxury or as part and parcel of a real actualizing of freedom. Of course it can be or at least feel like the opposite -- a curse, when it obliterates every taste of one's aspect...

Eli Wiesel, Nobel Peace Price Laureate, famed writer and passionate spokesperson about the Holocaust, being himself a survivor, has reached out just this week to Mitt Romney about what he and many others see as the reprehensible policy of Mormons baptizing Jews -- after their death no less. Specifically it...

A man of 50 talked of the futility of "my so-called love relationship." He had just come through a bout of dealing with addictive issues that had kept him preoccupied and self absorbed to the point that he sometimes forgot to go to the scheduled sporting events of his kids....

There is something terribly troubling in the media and political discourse about education in our time. We so urgently need critical thinking to gauge what measures we can engage so we might inspire our children to study and invent their own paths to the gateways to what we call...

For some reason -- Jung called it synchronicity -- it seems like things align to make us aware and awake to a reality we might have known but now see, or that we had seen but suddenly care about. Or there are things or people we cared about and then...

A furor is obviously escalating as to who gets diagnosed for what, psychiatrically speaking. In particular, the New York Times on Jan. 25, 2012 had a front page article by Benedict Carey, entitled "Grief Could Join List of Disorders," which includes the current discussion of whether grief and its agony...

Okay, here goes. There are those of you as of this moment glued to the television or the variety of streaming devises at your disposal. And while I hear the applause in the background where my husband is doing what he feels is his civic duty, I keep as far...

Perhaps sooner than later it will be a given that we consider our emotional states as urgently as we do our economic, military, educational, physical health, and political state of ourselves as a nation. On the eve of the Presidential State of the Union message to be given on Tuesday...

Part of a child's birthright in the best of all worlds that we can help create, is that of ownership of an authentic experience of existence, of expression, and of feeling. Combinations of security, empowerment, confidence -- really amounting to reasons for hope -- develop when there is real mutuality...

It's the beginning of 2012 and I know I'm not alone in being upset at the change of lyrics of John Lennon's majestic hymn of love called "Imagine". On the Channel 4, WNBC New Year's Eve extravaganza a few minutes before midnight, Cee Lo Green sang -- instead of...

Let's keep it Jewish for a bit, since there are others already covering the alleged "War on Christmas." As Jon Stewart implies, the "protectors" suggest that they should be able to celebrate Christmas anywhere and in any manner they choose. So what's so Jewish about this? Exactly, so let's get...

We can find books and programs telling us how to avoid the cycles of materialism, but they seem to ignore our immense dependency on the opinions of others. So if we read the current book Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don't Have in Search of Happiness We Can't...