Special event! November 19!

                                 The Triangle Freethought Society

proudly presents

"Piety and the Placebo Effect:

How Religion Hijacks Our Capacity for Self Healing."

with

Dr. Andy Thomson

Monday November 19, 2012 at 6:30 pm

3313 Wade Ave.

Raleigh, NC 27607

J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., M.D.(Andy) is a psychiatrist in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia.(Andy) is a psychiatrist in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He is also a staff psychiatrist for the Counseling and Psychological Services of the University of Virginia's Student Health Services, as well as the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.

He is the forensic psychiatrist for Region Ten Community Services.

 

Since 1992 Marilyn Minrath, Ph.D., M.S.N. and Dr. Thomson have conducted a private forensic practice. Their cases have encompassed the full range of legal issues including child custody, capital murder, competence, and mental state at the time of the offense.

Andy received his B.A. from Duke University (1970), his M.D. from the University of Virginia (1974) and did his adult psychiatry training at the University of Virginia (1974-77). His private practice is oriented toward individual psychoanalytic psychotherapy, forensic psychiatry, and medication consultation.

He served as the Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction at the University of Virginia, which involved interdisciplinary intervention and research in large group ethnic and political conflict.

Dr. Thomson has publications on narcissistic personality disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the psychology of racism, religion, psychobiographical essays on Robert E. Lee and Lee Harvey Oswald, depression, bipolar disorder, and forensic psychiatry. His current research interest is in the area of evolutionary psychology and using its principles to understand depression, suicide terrorism, and religious belief.

With Russ Federman he recently published Facing Bipolar: The Young Adult's Guide to Dealing with Bipolar Disorder.

In June 2011, with Clare Aukofer, he published Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith.

Since 2008, he has had the privilege of serving as a trustee for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

The Triangle Freethought Society (TFS) is a membership-based, nonprofit education and advocacy organization dedicated to issues surrounding nontheism. Our membership is made up of nontheists, post-theists, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, skeptics and humanists living and working in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and surrounding areas. We are the local chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national member-organization based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Our main purpose is to stand up for the separation of church and state as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Additionally, we work to:

• Ensure that non-religious people enjoy the same rights as religious citizens.
• Raise awareness and educate the general population about the concerns and issues facing the nontheist community.
• Protect reason-based and scientific education within our school systems.
• Engage in organized charitable and community improvement projects.
• Create a sense of community for the nontheist population in our geographical area and beyond.

TFS is also an affiliate organization of the American Humanist Association (AHA).