Child frustrated reading a book Getty Images/LeManna

There is no wrong way to read.

That’s the message behind “Reader’s Block: A History of Reading Differences,” a fantastic new book by Matthew Rubery, a professor of modern literature at Queen Mary University of London. “Reader’s Block” is a tribute to everyone who knows they are intelligent — but also knows that they struggle with the supposedly straightforward task of reading....

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You don’t need to experience direct, deliberate abuse in order to experience trauma. There are lawyers who experience second-hand trauma while working on tough cases and health care workers who burn out after being overloaded with cases. Recent events in the news, such as the COVID-19 epidemic and former President Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, can also traumatize people even if they are not direct targets of mistreatment....

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Prison cells Getty Images/Hitoshi Nishimura

London’s Bedlam psychiatric hospital is infamous today for how its staff brutally abused their patients. Founded in 1247, the ornately-designed facility treated the people within its care as if they were freaks and monsters rather than human beings. For a period, the patients were even turned into a literal spectacle, with thousands of “normal” people flocking to Bedlam so they could pay a token fee to gawp at patients for entertainment — or, as one supporter put it, as a reminder that they must “keep baser instincts in check.”...

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When a judge granted Britney Spears the right to hire her own attorney, the iconic pop star was very clear in stating that she wants to end her father’s conservatorship over her. After telling Judge Brenda Penny that she is “extremely scared” of Jamie Spears, the 39-year-old pop singer informed reporters that she was “here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse.”...

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A new study reveals that people with schizophrenia are almost three times more likely to die if diagnosed with COVID-19 than individuals who do not have that mental illness. More peculiarly, scientists are not entirely sure why. 

The study, which was published the journal JAMA Psychiatry, analyzed medical information from more than 7,300 adults in a New York health system and examined whether there was any link between mortality rates and several mental health conditions....

Originally posted on salon.com