J. Anderson Thomson

J. Anderson Thomson, Jr. is an American psychiatrist and writer. He is a Trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and Board member of Center for Inquiry. He is staff psychiatrist for Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Virginia Student Health Center, as well as the University of Virginia's Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. Thomson also has his own private practice, and is a forensic psychiatrist for Region Ten Community Services. Thomson acquired his B.A. from Duke University in 1970, he acquired his M.D. from the University of Virginia in 1974, and he did his adult psychiatry training at the University of Virginia from 1974 to 1977.[1]

J. Anderson Thomson
OccupationPsychiatrist, writer

Thomson has published papers on a variety of issues, including racism, narcissistic personality disorder, forensic psychiatry, depression and PTSD. He is known for his work on evolutionary psychology,[2][3] as well as for his exploration of the cognitive and evolutionary basis of religious belief, as presented in his latest book entitled Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith. Thomson has been a featured speaker at several atheist conferences including American Atheists 2009[4] and Atheist Alliance International 2009[5] for which he spoke about his theories on the cognitive origins of religious belief. In an interview with the Austin American-Statesman, Thomson stated, "There is a massive, irreconcilable conflict between science and religion. Religion was humanity's original cosmology, biology and anthropology. It provided explanations for the origin of the world, life and humans. Science now gives us increasingly complete explanations for those big three."[6] He is on the Board of Center for Inquiry.[7]

JFK Conspiracy Theory

When he was young, Thomson had read Jim Garrison's book On the Trail of the Assassins and became convinced that there had been a conspiracy. He then read Gerald Posner's book Case Closed, which showed clearly that Oswald was the killer.[8] While he thought the book was brilliant, he felt that the motivation for the killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, should be made more clear. He wrote a long paper detailing Oswald's mental state. His conclusion was that Oswald was bipolar based on his previous diagnosis in his youth, and had suffered from sexual abuse at the hands of his mother.[9]

Writings
  • Federman, Russ; Thomson, J. Anderson (2010). Facing Bipolar: The Young Adult's Guide to Dealing with Bipolar Disorder. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications. ISBN 978-1-57224-642-3.
  • Thomson, J. Anderson; Aukofer, Clare (2011). Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith. Charlottesville, VA: Pitchstone Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9844932-1-0.
gollark: ++choose 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524
gollark: The first number is the number of times to choose.
gollark: <@402456897812168705> Working as intended.
gollark: ++remind 1d5h fix.
gollark: Oops, wrong channel.

References
  1. "Counseling and Psychological Services: Meet CAPS Staff". Department of Student Health at the Elson Student Health Center. University of Virginia. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  2. Brink, Susan (July 30, 2007). "Are Antidepressants Taking the Edge off Love?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  3. Lehrer, Jonah (February 25, 2010). "Depression's Upside". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  4. "Why We Believe in Gods - Andy Thomson - American Atheists 09". YouTube. Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. April 23, 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  5. "'Morality: From the Heavens or From Nature?' by Dr. Andy Thomson, AAI 2009". YouTube. Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. October 15, 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  6. "Author offers evolutionary explanation for religion". Austin American-Statesman. June 19, 2011. Archived from the original on May 2, 2012. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
  7. "Board". Center for Inquiry. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  8. "Dr. Andy Thomson Interview". The Good Atheist Podcast. October 29, 2012. Retrieved 2017-10-20.
  9. "Lee Harvey Oswald: Another Look" (PDF). PDF.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.