• “Covert” narcissism in the workplace.

• One therapist’s perspective on “relational change” among couples in therapy centers on the connection between choice and hope.

• A groundbreaking approach to mental health moves beyond the limitations of symptomatic profiling to a refreshing focus on 6 predominant “systems” domains.

• The link between overprotective parenting and social anxiety among teens.

• Cognitive scientist and host of the podcast “A Slight Change of Plans” Maya Shankar discusses externally-imposed, unexpected change.

• The phenomenon of “parasocial relationships”. 

Please check out the library of available blog articles and podcast recordings.

• Men's Emotional Intelligence



• The Psychology of Friendship

The Men's Group Seminar: A Promising New Approach to Mental Health Organizes Functioning Into 6 Domains  

The current psychiatric nomenclature (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition [DSM-5]), the predominant system used to classify, assess, and diagnose mental health disorders/psychiatric illness, has received considerable praise and significant criticism. Empirically supported by major research studies and clinical input, critical appraisals focus on the conceptual framework underlying “disorders” featured in the DSM-5, the purposeful exclusion of theoretical perspectives, and DSM-5’s emphasis on categorical determinations of illness based on symptom counts rather than dimensionality (i.e., any person displays psychiatric features existing on a continuum or range that do not necessarily represent “abnormality”). In terms of intervention and treatment, clinicians have long struggled with the DSM-5’s “top-down” approach to disorder. “Depression,” for example, is nothing more than a construct comprised of numerous symptoms, each of which likely reflects underlying factors and a complex entanglement of etiological pathways far more salient than the symptom itself and the label ultimately assigned to the grouping of the symptoms.

The good news, however, is an innovative shift to the much needed “bottom-up” appraisal of functioning. In an entirely new approach to mental disorders emerging from a program of research developed by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the “Research Domain Criteria (RDoc) Framework” will likely have a significant impact on the fields of psychiatry and psychology. In the next in-person meeting of the Men’s Group Seminar on Saturday, August 5, 2023 (10:15 to 11:30 AM), we will discuss this new model of mental health and its profoundly innovative conceptual framework, the “RDoc Matrix”. 

The RDoc Matrix is composed of 6 interlocking system domains: Negative Valence Systems; Positive Valence Systems; Cognitive Systems; Social Processes; Arousal and Regulatory Systems; and Sensorimotor Systems. Within each domain are constructs which serve to further characterize the domain. For example, in the domain of Social Processes are the constructs “social communication” and “perception and understanding of self’; in the domain of Negative Valence Systems are the constructs “loss” and “frustrated nonreward.” These systems, and their associated constructs, offer clearer depictions of the elements of everyday functioning and provide a way to understand how a person’s unique set of competencies and limitations may be relevant for the level of success achieved when faced with pragmatic situational demands such as managing personal finances or maintaining a healthy, intimate relationship. The application of the RDoc Matrix to the unique challenges men face, and to male psychology in general, will be topics addressed in this seminar. 

To register for this upcoming in-person seminar, please see the directions below.

The Relationship Group Seminar: “Dynamics” and Their Role in Relationship Destruction

The notion of relationship “dynamics” is perhaps the most misunderstood and underemphasized component of romantic love and long-term committed relationships. In over 20 years of working therapeutically with couples in distress, understanding and dis-embedding partners from the dynamics within which they have become entrenched ultimately becomes my most significant clinical task. Unfortunately, many couples, and the clinicians who encounter them, do not prioritize a close analysis of these relational dynamics, their insidious origin and evolution, and their destructive potential. In the next in-person meeting of the Relationship Group Seminar on Saturday, August 5, 2023 (11:45 AM to 1:00 PM), I will offer a primer on what relational dynamics are and how they inadvertently and often unconsciously are reinforced by partners largely unaware of the need to resist them.

Fundamentally, dynamics are patterned thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that evolve in relationships after attempts by one partner to change the other have been consistently thwarted. The desire to “change” one’s partner is a universal aspect of the human condition stemming from the need to create in the other a persona with distinct, highly stylized attributes that carry deep psychological meaning. Inevitably, one's partner resists these efforts; as this resistance occurs, a dynamic arises. Like “The Matrix” film franchise, once the dynamic originates and contours, it becomes the subtext dominating the couple and commandeering the roles and value systems within their relationship. If the partners cannot detach themselves from the perpetuating dynamic, intimacy in its most basic form (i.e., engaging with, and being engaged by, a partner authentically and freely, without psychological conditions) inevitably dies. In our seminar, these ideas will be elaborated and the nature in which dynamics impact all social systems will be enumerated. We will also, of course, consider pathways out of the matrix.   

To register for this upcoming in-person seminar, please see the directions below.

New Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Group Forming

A new psychodynamic psychotherapy group (for women and men) is now forming in my practice; the day/time of group sessions has yet to be determined. Referrals are welcomed (please contact me at 949-338-4388 or at jt@jamestobinphd.com). This therapy group will utilize the emerging dynamics among group members as a basis from which to examine characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and relating to others. The group will be a therapeutic experience and entry will occur only after a pre-group screening interview and preparation phase.