#michael sherman

[vintagehomecollection]

Studio apartment. Michael Sherman, Designer, Breneman, Inc., Cincinnati, OH.

The Use of Color in Interiors, 1978

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“The brain is a belief engine… It relies on two processes: patternicity and agenticity. It finds meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless data. It infuses patterns with meaning, and imagines intention and agency in inanimate objects and chance occurrences… We believe before we reason. Once beliefs are formed, we seek out confirmatory arguments and evidence to justify them. We ignore contrary evidence or make up rationalizations to explain it away. We do not like to admit we are wrong. We seldom change our minds…” —Michael Sherman (via cobotis)

[Alive On All Channels]

[hotcakesandicecream]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Largest Study to Date Supports Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria Model — Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)

For over a decade, the Gender Affirmative Model has been the standard of care for gender dysphoric youth across the West. Yet, despite its

Published: Mar 30, 2023

For over a decade, the Gender Affirmative Model has been the standard of care for gender dysphoric youth across the West. Yet, despite its widespread and long-standing use, good evidence to support it remains elusive.  Maybe that’s because there isn’t any.

A new paper reports on results from a survey of 1,655 parents of children who developed gender dysphoria during adolescence or soon after. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines recommend affirming these kids in their new gender, and supporting them along the path to social, medical (hormonal), and surgical transition.

The results of this survey provide strong support for Dr. Littman’s Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) hypothesis, which suggests that gender dysphoria in this group may resolve with time and good psychological and social support, if needed.

Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases - Archives of Sexual Behavior

During the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in adolescents and young adults (AYA) complaining of gender dysphoria. One influen

Key Findings

Key findings of particular concern are that these children tend to have emotional problems that predate their gender-related issues by nearly four years. Furthermore, children with mental health issues were more likely than those without to have taken steps to transition.  Children who were referred to a gender specialist were also more likely to have taken steps to transition. Parents reported feeling pressured by these specialists to transition their child. And parents reported a decline in their child’s mental health and social functioning after transition.

History of Gender Dysphoria and Standards of Care

About 15 years ago, Western countries began experiencing an exponential rise in adolescents and young adults suddenly developing gender dysphoria and being referred to gender clinics for treatment. Around the same time, a new philosophy on transgenderism began to take root:  Just as there is nothing wrong with being attracted to the same sex, there was nothing wrong with identifying with a gender that did not match your biological sex.  In other words, being transgender is perfectly normal. It is not a mental illness.  If a trans person does have any mental health issues, it can be attributed to the extreme distress of having to live in a body that does not feel right (gender dysphoria), and the stress of living in a judgmental, transphobic world.

Out of this philosophy grew the Affirmative Care Model. This model focused on reassuring (affirming) people that their gender identity was real, normal and natural, and helping them take steps to relieve their gender dysphoria through social, medical (hormonal) and surgical transition. In order to address their social distress from lack of acceptance, much effort is devoted to creating a supportive environment among friends, family, schools and society in general.

Although there was almost no evidence to support it at the time, the Affirmative Care Model quickly became the standard of care in most Western countries.

In 2016, Dr. Littman noticed an anomalous spike in teenage girls suddenly declaring themselves transgender and became concerned.  She conducted a survey of their parents to learn more about this new phenomenon.  Based on what she found, she proposed that a new sub-category of gender dysphoria had emerged, this one sharing more similarities with anorexia and other eating disorders than with the previously recognized types of gender dysphoria.  Dr. Littman described Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) in her seminal paper published in 2018.

ROGD develops suddenly, during or after puberty in a person who would not have met the criteria for childhood gender dysphoria. Most often, these kids are white, highly intelligent and come from well-educated families. ROGD affects mainly girls, and groups of friends often come out as trans together. The influence of social media is believed to play a role. They often have a prior history of mental health issues, developmental difficulties or have experienced a traumatic or stressful event before developing gender dysphoria. A prior history of self-harm and difficulty fitting in with their peers are also common. Sadly, transitioning is not likely to help these kids with their issues as it does not address the root cause.  In fact, it has a good chance of making things much worse.

The ROGD hypothesis suggests that for these unhappy kids, “gender dysphoria” is a catch-all phrase for any kind of distress, and transition is the cure-all solution

Since the publication of Littman’s paper, the ROGD hypothesis has come under fire from proponents of the affirmative care model.  It’s easy to see why:  The affirmative care model is based on the premise that being transgender is perfectly normal. The ROGD model suggests that this particular kind of gender dysphoria – and the desire to transition – is most definitely not normal. It’s a maladaptive coping mechanism.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence to support either hypothesis.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s newest Standards of Care, published in Oct. 2022 admits, “A key challenge in adolescent transgender care is the quality of evidence evaluating the effectiveness of… gender-affirming medical and surgical treatments.” “The number of studies is still low and there are few outcome studies that follow youth into adulthood.”

Testing the ROGD hypothesis presents its own challenges.  In North America, gender clinics are still using the affirmative model as a standard of care, which views taking steps to transition as medically necessary and thus, would be unwilling to test the ROGD model. Further, ROGD has become such a contentious topic at universities that any academic who broaches the subject risks career suicide. Just ask Dr. Littman and Dr. James Caspian.

Survey Results

Concurring with Dr. Littman’s findings, our survey indicates children who are most likely to develop ROGD are of European descent (78.9%), with above-average intelligence. They are also more likely to be female (75%). Their gender dysphoria develops around the age of 14 for girls, and 16 for boys. This may be partly due to the fact that boys go through puberty later than girls.

Their parents are more likely to be progressive and hold positive views towards LGBTQ+ rights.  Frequently, parents went out of their way to make sure the reader understood this when they told their stories. Many had family and friends in the LGBTQ+ community, and some were members themselves. They just didn’t feel it made sense in their child’s case.

A majority of these kids were dealing with mental health issues (57%) that began around the age of 10, well before they developed gender dysphoria, and 42% of them had received a formal psychological diagnosis.  The most frequently-reported issues were anxiety and depression. Self-harm was also prevalent in girls. Attention deficit disorder, autism, and obsessive-compulsive disorder were reported in numbers higher than the general population.

Very often, these kids had experienced a stressful event before they developed gender dysphoria (72.6%). Some described issues that would be overwhelming even for an adult to deal with, such as the suicide of a close relative, receiving a serious medical diagnosis such as cancer, being sexually assaulted, or being present at a mass shooting. Sometimes, the stress was more mundane, like moving, breaking up with a girl- or boyfriend, or having a good friend turn on them, but the child was having a hard time dealing with it. During the lock downs due to COVID, the strain of isolation was especially hard on these kids.

Parents also reported that their kids were having a lot of trouble fitting in with their peers at an age when being accepted feels like the most important thing in the world. Only about a quarter of parents reported that their child was well liked, and only one third said their kids got along well with other kids.

Parents reported their kids spent an average of 4.5 hours per day on the internet and social media.

When asked whether their child had friends who came out at the same time, 60.9% said their daughters did, compared with only 38.7% of their sons.  The average number of friends who came out were 2.4.

“My daughter used to be so lonely her only friend was her guinea pig. At 11, a girl at school befriended her as did her group of friends. All of a sudden, my daughter said she was bi, then gay, then pan, then poly, then fluid, now trans. Her mental health is deteriorating and the psychiatrists (this is her 6th) seem to push their own agenda and label me transphobic. I KNOW my daughter. When no social group will welcome you and one finally does, you’ll conform to fit in, to not lose the only ‘friends’ you have.”

~Parent of an ROGD Kid

Transition

The majority of the children had socially transitioned at the time parents completed the survey (65.3%), and girls tended to socially transition earlier (age 15) than boys (age 17). In general, parents reported that their children had not started taking puberty blockers or hormones, and surgery was especially rare.

Girls who had friends who socially transitioned were more likely to do so themselves (73.3%), compared with only 39.5% of boys who were more likely to transition if they had a friend who did so.

One very concerning finding was that children with preexisting mental health issues were also more likely to socially transition than those without. This is worrisome, because children with emotional issues may lack the judgment needed to make serious, and sometimes irreversible, decisions about their bodies.

Another troubling finding was that children who received a referral to a gender specialist were more likely to have transitioned. This is especially concerning because 51% of parents who took their kids to a gender specialist also reported that they felt pressured to transition their child.

Effects of Transition on Mental Health and Social Functioning

When asked about the state of their child’s mental health after social transition, they were much more likely to say it had worsened than improved.

Sadly, the change in the quality of the parental relationships also declined, as shown in the table below:

Conclusion

The results of the largest survey to date on gender dysphoric adolescents support Dr. Littman’s ROGD hypothesis. These youth are most likely using “gender dysphoria” to describe general feelings of dysphoria that they have no other name for, and do not understand.  Transitioning will not help them. It can only cause irreversible harm and make things much worse.

Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK and some States are backing away from the gender affirmative model, citing the lack of evidence and amid the growing number of detransitioners, many of whom are launching lawsuits against the gender specialists who harmed them. (See Ritchie Herron and Keira Bell, Michelle Zacchigna and Chloe Cole.)

Yet here in North America, the United States and Canadian Governments, the American Academy of Pediatrics and most other medical associations, are doubling down on the gender affirmative model.

If they truly want to “do no harm”, then they must follow Sweden’s lead and stop transitioning minors.

==

This should be good news. We have good reason to believe that distress can be resolved by treating the underlying cause, rather than through invasive and irreversible hormones, drugs and surgeries. How can this be a bad thing?

Because it's not about helping distress; if it was, they'd applaud the best treatment that causes the least harm. But it's about using anxious kids as pawns to remake society according to Queer Theory.

[moviesframes]

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Cinematography by Jarin Blaschke, Lowell A. Meyer

[adamwatchesmovies]

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

M. Night Shyamalan entered the scene as a hot director before falling from grace and recently, has been redeeming himself with a string of well-made mid-to-low-budget thrillers. Knock at the Cabin continues the trend. This film will have your stomach in all sorts of knots as its impossible dilemma makes you wonder what you would do.

Eric and Andrew (Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) are vacationing with their adoptive daughter Wen (Kristen Cui) when four strangers approach their remote cabin. Their leader, Leonard (Dave Bautista) explains that the family must help them save the world, but at a terrible cost: they must sacrifice one of their own.

A more conventional movie would have turned Knock at the Cabin into a siege film. M. Night Shyamalan isn’t interested in telling that story. Outnumbered two to one, with no weapons to effectively defend themselves and distracted by Wen, Andrew and Eric are quickly overwhelmed. From there, the four strangers try to convince them that they're not insane and why they must sacrifice one of their own. Meanwhile, we learn through flashbacks why this family would never sacrifice one of their members.

The middle is where Knock at the Cabin is at its strongest. Whether you think the four strangers (the last three of which are played by Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint and Abby Quinn) are bug-nuts or not, the film will eventually convince you of the opposite. Your mind races, trying to think of ways the family might convince these intruders to go away and get professional help. Or maybe the "prophets" will convince the family to make the sacrifice. What makes the dilemma all the more complicated is Andrew and Eric’s background. Although Shyamalan never shows them kissing (I’m not sure why), Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge have great chemistry. You believe neither could survive without the other and the thought of killing Wen is unfathomable. Making all this even more complicated is Andrew. Even if he believed the four strangers, you're not sure he cares enough about the world to save it. After being victimized by homophobes and rejected by his parents, nothing will change his opinion of what humanity is like. It makes me wonder if the reason we never see the couple kissing is to make the film more “intolerant friendly” so that someone who might feel uncomfortable by them would be able to see themselves as the person who caused Andrew to become so disillusioned by humanity.

Like many of M. Night Shyamalan’s other films, I’m unsure how Knock at the Cabin would hold up on a second viewing. Toward the end, you’ll be about 90% sure of whether this apocalypse is happening. Once you know that, the movie becomes entirely about whether Andrew and Eric will come to the same conclusion as you. That's fine - not every movie can have re-watch value. Making the ending more ambiguous might have changed that but it could’ve also made all of the theorizing and anxiety felt like it was a waste of time. I haven’t read the book by Paul Tremblay but it sounds like it leans a lot more in the horror direction than this adaptation. I can see why M. Night opted to change the ending. I’m not sure which I like better. I don’t see this as the kind of film I’d watch again, so I’ll explain why now.

The conclusion makes it clear that there was, indeed, an apocalypse about to happen and that by sacrificing Eric, Andrew saved the world. Disappointingly, the couple realizes this at about the same time. If they hadn’t, we could’ve had some scenes where a panic-stricken Eric realizes that they are allowing countless people to die by not listening to Leonard. This would have shown them as a less-than-perfect couple, however, so I can understand why the director opted not to take this route. I can also see why M. Night decided to make the ending conclusive, though I think the film would’ve been more impactful with some uncertainty. In a way, this movie is about faith. Introducing this as a more important theme, a theme that gets reinforced at the end by asking the audience what they believe would’ve made it a much more complicated picture. Then again, I’m not a seasoned director, so what do I know?

Knock at the Cabin presents us with a Gordian knot of a scenario that's tense to see play out. While I don’t think this is the kind of film that will have much re-watch value, it accomplishes what it sets out to do, which certainly makes it worth seeing. (August 10, 2023)

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Knock at the Cabin Trailer

“While vacationing at a remote cabin, a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse. With limited access to the outside world, the family must decide what they believe before all is lost.” (Universal Pictures)

Knock at the Cabin hails from M. Night Shyamalan. The film stars Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Kristen Cui, Abby Quinn, and Rupert Grint. The screenplay, based on Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, is by Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman.

Knock at the Cabin releases to theaters on February 3, 2023.

[dk-thrive]

The brain is a belief engine... We do not like to admit we are wrong. We seldom change our minds

“The brain is a belief engine… It relies on two processes: patternicity and agenticity. It finds meaningful patterns in both meaningful and meaningless data. It infuses patterns with meaning, and imagines intention and agency in inanimate objects and chance occurrences… We believe before we reason. Once beliefs are formed, we seek out confirmatory arguments and evidence to justify them. We ignore contrary evidence or make up rationalizations to explain it away. We do not like to admit we are wrong. We seldom change our minds…” —Michael Sherman, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths (Times Books; May 24, 2011)