Wellness Psychology/Morry Edwards PhD

08/15/2025

Here is the latest installment to The Psych Geek's Guide to People Don't Behave, Just to Behave. The next installments may be on an irregular schedule. Stay tuned.

Chapter 6

Real Life Barbie (Valeria Lukyanova) and Ken (Justin Jedlica)
Neither a Match Made in Heaven nor Plastic Surgery

Who wouldn’t want to be very handsome or beautiful? Most of us may have some quibbles with certain physical features, but that would not cause us to contemplate plastic surgery. Here are two people who went to extremes with “fixing” perfection. Was this a matter of wanting to be noticed for their 15 minutes of fame? Or just a matter of being dissatisfied with their appearance? Does it qualify for the diagnosis of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which is a mental health condition where people have very negative thoughts and emotions about their physical appearance that it may be cause significant disruptions in their lives. Does it reflect dissatisfaction with a person’s life? Who has the money to throw around for surgery after surgery besides Mattell? If nothing else these extreme examples of a pursuit for ideal beauty can make us examine our beliefs.

We will briefly look at two people who went to extreme measures and surgeries to change their appearance to match the dolls in real life and this was even before the movie came out! There are a lot of Barbie lookalikes walking around. This site shows some of them ( https://www.glam.com/1346923/real-people-barbie-ken/ ).
A Ken lookalike, Brazilian-born Celso Santebañes, died at a young age from leukemia.

Real Life Barbie is Valeria Lukyanova has used a variety of strategies to shape her appearance. She uses makeup, contact lenses, and breast implants to portray a “Real Life Barbie”. She has not resorted to any other plastic surgery besides the above mentioned implants. She is proud that her waist is only 18 inches, which she maintains through a rigorous lifestyle. She claimed to be a Breatharian. Those people believe that you can subsist on light and air. Not really recommended for widespread use. She has been known for her spiritual beliefs and claims to astral project and recalls past lives on a remote planet. She has been an instructor at the International School of Out-of-Body Travel. ( https://www.who.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/human-barbie-doll-meet-valeria-lukyanova/ )

More recently, she has abandoned “Barbie” for a more toned body and has given up Breatharian lifestyle for more time in the gym and a balanced diet. (https://www.stomp.sg/singapore-seen/from-around-the-world/not-so-dolled-up-anymore-remember-the-human-barbie-she-now-has).


Real Life Ken is Justin Jedlica. He is referred to as a “plastic surgery enthusiast”. He reports 780 cosmetic plastic surgeries including rhinoplasty, chest, bicep, tricep, and shoulder implants, brow lifts, cheek augmentations, subpectoral implants, gluteoplasty, and lip augmentations. He reportedly spent $800,000 on those procedures. He will continue his quest to become the best version of himself. That hopefully extends beyond the physical superficiality. Justin is on a quest to bring light to his brother’s mysterious death in prison. He hopes to shed more light on his brother, Jordan, death ( https://thoughtnova.com/the-unusual-tale-of-the-actual-barbie-and-ken-and-the-reason-they-inspired-dolls ).

In February 2013, Valeria and Justin’ paths crossed during a television appearance. They did not exactly hit it off unlike their namesakes. While the two may have appreciated the appearances. It is beyond this chapter to go further into their disagreement. But again when the focus is just on appearances, things often just stay on appearances than delve deeper to the person.

Upon their long-awaited encounter, sparks ignited, though not of the favorable kind.

08/13/2025

Here is the latest installment of The Psych Geek's People Don't Behave, Just to Behave. Future installments to come at irregular intervals. Any critical thoughts welcome.

Chapter 5

Donna Simpson – World’s Heaviest Mom to World’s Heaviest Woman- Fame May Not Be What It’s Cracked up to Be

Donna Simpson like Manuel was also in the Guinness Book of World’s Records twice. She was the heaviest woman to give birth and was on a quest to become the World’s Heaviest Woman. Her quest started in the bizarre world of fe**sh p**n. Her 1st husband managed and encouraged her. Her fans wanted to watch her eat and gain weight. They sent her high fat foods, money, and MacDonald’s vouchers. She would typically consume 12,000 calories a day and was said to earn $90,000 dollars a year! After her second husband left, she abandoned the pursuit and wanted to be healthy. At last public notice, she had lost 85 pounds and left the public view. She now has gotten down to 220 and has left the public eye.
There is no question that fame, money and food are reinforcing, but Donna’s story shows the unhealthy side of those quests. Donna learned her lesson and has turned her life around. She no longer seeks the limelight and is much more content. Always remember People don’t behave just to behave there’ s always something reinforcing their actions!
(https://24.franc-info.com/2025/05/12/because-her-husband-liked-full-figured-women-this-woman-gained-massive-weight-and-eventually-weighed-nearly-317-kilograms-%F0%9F%98%B2/ )

08/13/2025

Here is a link to my Wellness Psychology Page where I have been posting segments of a book that has been in process for some time. It is called The Psychic's Guide to People don't Behave Just to Behave. It remains in process and I will post on the Wellness Page. https://www.facebook.com/WellnessPsychology

Morry Edwards, Ph.D. is a licensed medical psychologist and biofeedback practitioner with over 45 years of clinical practice and teaching experience.

08/13/2025

Here is a link to the latest chapter in The Psych Geek's Guide to People Don't Behave Just to Behave. - Morry Edwards
https://medium.com//psych-geeks-guide-to-people-don-t-behave-just-to-behave-morry-edwards-phd-926eb258b0c9

Here is the column if you prefer.
Chapter 4

Manuel Uribe — World’s Largest Man to Weight Loss Champ

Manuel Uribe led a normal life, but ended up being a minor celebrity as he appeared in the Guinness Book of World’s records twice — once as the world’s heaviest man at 1,230 pounds and once as the loser of the most weight. He slimmed down to 867 pounds. Manuel was an extreme example of our contemporary lifestyle. He was born weighing a perfectly normal eight pounds. He married and had a perfectly normal job fixing typewriters (remember them?), which was very sedentary. Unfortunately, his job was close to several eateries featuring pizza, fried chicken, etc. He put on a great deal of weight and ended up moving back to states. He continued to put on weight as he developed a huge growth that made him very sedentary. He had an operation to remove the growth which was 180 pounds, the weight of a normal person. He became bed bond and continued to gain weight to the point he was immobile n bed and ate his meals there and washed up there and lived fully in bed. He eventually got motivated to lose and develop a normal activity level. He married his nurse but had to be transported by a flat-bed truck. Although he lost a tremendous amount of weight and got down to 867 pounds, he died prematurely at the young age of 48. He provides a real example that lifestyle changes in our sedentary, phone glued lifestyle need to happen
Manuel Uribe beginning his quest to lose weight

As our life becomes increasingly sedentary, as a society we are becoming less active and more likely to gain weight. There is no doubt that pizza is one of God’s gifts, but we all need to become more conscious of our food choices. Food is essential, but it has become a problem as more people are less physically active. Remember that it becomes easier and easier to unconsciously (or consciously) overeat all the goodies that have been created. See Manuel’s story that details part of his life:

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pah3RlCaZIY

He provides a real example that lifestyle changes in our sedentary, phone glued lifestyle need and can happen.

08/08/2025

Another Chapter from the Psych Geek’s Guide to People Don’t Behave Just to Behave by Morry Edwards, PhD
Morry Edwards, Phd
3 min read
·
Chapter 2
On Being Sane in Insane Places-
The Rosenhan Experiment
Identifying “crazy” behavior many times varies from place to place and society to society. Some traditions or customs in one country may seem quite bizarre to someone from a different background. Having a monkey’s skull opened at your dinner table and eating the brain is a delicacy in China or Vietnam and serves as just one example.
As recently as the early 1960’s large mental hospitals were not necessarily treatment oriented as more for custodial care. These were not necessarily very healing places to be.
In 1963, the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA) (also known as the Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, Mental Retardation Facilities and Construction Act Public Law 88–164 was passed. The purpose of the legislation was to transfer people from those large mental hospitals to facilities or families in the community. This ended up very shortsighted as far fewer of the proposed centers were built, many were never fully funded, and little money was provided for long term. The trouble with that was instead of having other transitional residential programs, people often ended up on the street and it dramatically increased our homeless population.
In the midst of emptying out the mental hospitals, there was another controversy brewing: a criticism of psychiatric diagnoses. Dr. David Rosenhan, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University devised an experiment to test the arbitrary nature of psychiatric diagnoses.
Rosenhan and seven mentally healthy associates feigned mental illness by claiming they were hearing same s*x voices pronouncing words such as “empty” or “hollow.” No other psychiatric symptoms were reported and once they were admitted, the patients reported feeling “fine” and no longer had any hallucinations. They were still forced to admit to having mental illness and to take medications. They flushed the pills down the toilet and even some of the other patients could tell they were “normal.”
All but one of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia in remission. They were forced to admit that they had mental illness and agree top take antipsychotic medication before they were released. They were institutionalized in 12 different hospitals in five states for an average of 19 days. A more detailed description can be found elsewhere especially in Rosenhan’s original article entitled, “On Being Sane in Insane Places” published in the journal, Science, in 1973. He describes the dehumanization and invasion of privacy. While many of the staff were well meaning, some were verbally and physically abusive.
As one can imagine, this was a huge embarrassment to the psychiatric establishment. A well-known teaching hospital claimed that similar errors could not happen at their hospital. Rosenhan told them that during a three-month period, pseudopatients would attempt admission and had the staff rate new admissions as the likelihood of being an imposter. During that time, 193 patients were admitted and 42 were considered imposters, while another 42 were considered suspect. The truth was that Rosenhan had not sent a single “imposter.”
Another psychiatrist who questioned labels was Thomas Szasz who wrote The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct.
This stirred the pot even more, but much reform has taken place and we have succeeded in deinstitutionizing as many as possible. While psychiatric diagnosis has developed more empirical validation in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — 5 (DSM-5TR)), it remains an evolving process.
Another community mental health problem that has developed is the growing use of jails as a mental health facility. Many people who should be receiving treatment through community mental health agencies end up committing minor and sometimes major crimes end up in jails rather than mental health facilities. As an example, Cook County Jail in the Chicago area reports as many as one-third of their 6,500 prisoners are mentally ill. It is to the credit of Sheriff Tom Dart and his staff that some innovative programs are helping his prisoners get jobs and hopefully stay in society. For a slightly light-hearted look at this grim situation, see John Oliver’s segment a few years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8 ).
A further point to consider is focusing less on labels and more how the aberrant behavior functions. Let’s look further into how a behavior functions with many of the people in this book. While many have severe problems, several are super role models such as the man who starts us off in the next column.
Written by Morry Edwards, Phd

08/08/2025

Here is the next installment of The Psych Geek's Guide to People Don't Behave Just to Behave

Another Chapter from the Psych Geek’s Guide to People Don’t Behave Just to Behave by Morry Edwards, PhD
Morry Edwards, Phd
3 min read
·
Chapter 2
On Being Sane in Insane Places-
The Rosenhan Experiment
Identifying “crazy” behavior many times varies from place to place and society to society. Some traditions or customs in one country may seem quite bizarre to someone from a different background. Having a monkey’s skull opened at your dinner table and eating the brain is a delicacy in China or Vietnam and serves as just one example.
As recently as the early 1960’s large mental hospitals were not necessarily treatment oriented as more for custodial care. These were not necessarily very healing places to be.
In 1963, the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA) (also known as the Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, Mental Retardation Facilities and Construction Act Public Law 88–164 was passed. The purpose of the legislation was to transfer people from those large mental hospitals to facilities or families in the community. This ended up very shortsighted as far fewer of the proposed centers were built, many were never fully funded, and little money was provided for long term. The trouble with that was instead of having other transitional residential programs, people often ended up on the street and it dramatically increased our homeless population.
In the midst of emptying out the mental hospitals, there was another controversy brewing: a criticism of psychiatric diagnoses. Dr. David Rosenhan, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University devised an experiment to test the arbitrary nature of psychiatric diagnoses.
Rosenhan and seven mentally healthy associates feigned mental illness by claiming they were hearing same s*x voices pronouncing words such as “empty” or “hollow.” No other psychiatric symptoms were reported and once they were admitted, the patients reported feeling “fine” and no longer had any hallucinations. They were still forced to admit to having mental illness and to take medications. They flushed the pills down the toilet and even some of the other patients could tell they were “normal.”
All but one of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia in remission. They were forced to admit that they had mental illness and agree top take antipsychotic medication before they were released. They were institutionalized in 12 different hospitals in five states for an average of 19 days. A more detailed description can be found elsewhere especially in Rosenhan’s original article entitled, “On Being Sane in Insane Places” published in the journal, Science, in 1973. He describes the dehumanization and invasion of privacy. While many of the staff were well meaning, some were verbally and physically abusive.
As one can imagine, this was a huge embarrassment to the psychiatric establishment. A well-known teaching hospital claimed that similar errors could not happen at their hospital. Rosenhan told them that during a three-month period, pseudopatients would attempt admission and had the staff rate new admissions as the likelihood of being an imposter. During that time, 193 patients were admitted and 42 were considered imposters, while another 42 were considered suspect. The truth was that Rosenhan had not sent a single “imposter.”
Another psychiatrist who questioned labels was Thomas Szasz who wrote The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct.
This stirred the pot even more, but much reform has taken place and we have succeeded in deinstitutionizing as many as possible. While psychiatric diagnosis has developed more empirical validation in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — 5 (DSM-5TR)), it remains an evolving process.
Another community mental health problem that has developed is the growing use of jails as a mental health facility. Many people who should be receiving treatment through community mental health agencies end up committing minor and sometimes major crimes end up in jails rather than mental health facilities. As an example, Cook County Jail in the Chicago area reports as many as one-third of their 6,500 prisoners are mentally ill. It is to the credit of Sheriff Tom Dart and his staff that some innovative programs are helping his prisoners get jobs and hopefully stay in society. For a slightly light-hearted look at this grim situation, see John Oliver’s segment a few years ago (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8 ).
A further point to consider is focusing less on labels and more how the aberrant behavior functions. Let’s look further into how a behavior functions with many of the people in this book. While many have severe problems, several are super role models such as the man who starts us off in the next column.
Written by Morry Edwards, Phd

08/06/2025

Here is a link to column # 3

Some of the best psychologists went into advertising including one of the pioneers of behaviorism, John Watson. Sometimes harsh advertising…

08/06/2025

Here is a link to the first column. sorry they are out of order.

08/06/2025

Here is the second column on my Page at Medium. I will soon republish the first article that is the real beginning.

12/16/2024