ICYMI: Scientology Personality Test And Learning From Failure

Health stories you may have missed.

ICYMI Health features what we're reading this week.

This week, we examined pieces that explored unconventional ways of thinking. A new book by Brené Brown explores why dwelling on failure can actually yield positive results, and a father-daughter team makes a case for seeking solutions to problems rather than analyzing our feelings about them.

We also took note of a highly practical survey about bicycle signage that could hold a key to improving relationships between rides and drivers. 

Read on and tell us in the comments: What did you read and love this week?

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Bloomberg via Getty Images

Part one of a 58,000-word expose on Johnson & Johnson, a blockbuster drug and the people it harmed. 

"All the big pharmas" have lawsuits, the analyst concluded, sipping an espresso. "It’s just not a big deal."

Michael and Sarah Bennett's new self-help book, F*ck Feelings, argues that that we should all stop dwelling on our emotions.

Put down the talking stick. Stop fruitlessly seeking "closure" with your peevish co-worker. And please, don't bother telling your spouse how annoying you find their tongue-clicking habit—sometimes honesty is less like a breath of fresh air and more like a fart.

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Damon Scheleur/ The Huffington Post

Dr. Joseph Ravenell, who works at NYU School of Medicine, is leveraging the trust black men have in their local barber in an effort to improve public health.

"They would talk about everything under the sun," Dr. Ravenell said. "Including health. The barbershop just seemed like a natural place to reach black men and to promote health."

While the Myers-Briggs test flatters all 16 of its personality types, the controversial personality assessment that Scientologists use as a recruitment tool focuses on demoralizing the test-taker.    

Even if you are relatively mentally stable, you may find it distressing to hear someone you’ve just met rattle off a list of your flaws—some of which, inevitably, you will be inclined to agree with. (For the record: I am nervous! I can be impulsive!) It doesn’t leave you feeling great about yourself; it’s not meant to.

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Edward McCain via Getty Images

Medicare's effort to reduce hospital readmissions may be disproportionally punishing hospitals that serve at-risk patients. 

Maybe the best-performing hospitals don't look as good, because they're taking care of patients that are much less likely to have been readmitted in the first place. 

Signs that say "Bicyclists May Use Full Lane" send a different message than ones that read "Share the Road."

When the study volunteers saw this image with the “full lane” sign, they were more likely to answer that what the cyclist was doing was safe and legal.

For women who suffer from fibromyalgia, one of the most frustrating aspects of the disease is that doctors question its legitimacy. 

If you feel awful and people react with disbelief, that's infuriating.

 

A new book by social scientist Brené Brown posits that we can learn from taking time to think about our failures before we move on.

Without reckoning, you can’t chart a future course. In the rising strong process, we can’t chart a brave new course until we recognize exactly where we are, get curious about how we got there, and decide where we want to go.

 

Also on HuffPost:

Health Care Reform Efforts In U.S. History
1912(01 of17)
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Former President Theodore Roosevelt champions national health insurance as he unsuccessfully tries to ride his progressive Bull Moose Party back to the White House. (credit:Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1935(02 of17)
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt favors creating national health insurance amid the Great Depression but decides to push for Social Security first. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1942(03 of17)
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Roosevelt establishes wage and price controls during World War II. Businesses can't attract workers with higher pay so they compete through added benefits, including health insurance, which grows into a workplace perk. (credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1945(04 of17)
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President Harry Truman calls on Congress to create a national insurance program for those who pay voluntary fees. The American Medical Association denounces the idea as "socialized medicine" and it goes nowhere. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1960(05 of17)
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John F. Kennedy makes health care a major campaign issue but as president can't get a plan for the elderly through Congress. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1965 (06 of17)
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President Lyndon B. Johnson's legendary arm-twisting and a Congress dominated by his fellow Democrats lead to creation of two landmark government health programs: Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor. (credit:AFP/Getty Images)
1974(07 of17)
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President Richard Nixon wants to require employers to cover their workers and create federal subsidies to help everyone else buy private insurance. The Watergate scandal intervenes. (credit:Keystone/Getty Images)
1976(08 of17)
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President Jimmy Carter pushes a mandatory national health plan, but economic recession helps push it aside. (credit:Central Press/Getty Images)
1986(09 of17)
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President Ronald Reagan signs COBRA, a requirement that employers let former workers stay on the company health plan for 18 months after leaving a job, with workers bearing the cost. (credit:MIKE SARGENT/AFP/Getty Images)
1988(10 of17)
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Congress expands Medicare by adding a prescription drug benefit and catastrophic care coverage. It doesn't last long. Barraged by protests from older Americans upset about paying a tax to finance the additional coverage, Congress repeals the law the next year. (credit:TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
1993(11 of17)
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President Bill Clinton puts first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of developing what becomes a 1,300-page plan for universal coverage. It requires businesses to cover their workers and mandates that everyone have health insurance. The plan meets Republican opposition, divides Democrats and comes under a firestorm of lobbying from businesses and the health care industry. It dies in the Senate. (credit:PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
1997(12 of17)
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Clinton signs bipartisan legislation creating a state-federal program to provide coverage for millions of children in families of modest means whose incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. (credit:JAMAL A. WILSON/AFP/Getty Images)
2003(13 of17)
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President George W. Bush persuades Congress to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare in a major expansion of the program for older people. (credit:STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP/Getty Images)
2008(14 of17)
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Hillary Clinton promotes a sweeping health care plan in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. She loses to Barack Obama, who has a less comprehensive plan. (credit:PAUL RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)
2009(15 of17)
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President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress spend an intense year ironing out legislation to require most companies to cover their workers; mandate that everyone have coverage or pay a fine; require insurance companies to accept all comers, regardless of any pre-existing conditions; and assist people who can't afford insurance. (credit:Alex Wong/Getty Images)
2010(16 of17)
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With no Republican support, Congress passes the measure, designed to extend health care coverage to more than 30 million uninsured people. Republican opponents scorned the law as "Obamacare." (credit:Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
2012(17 of17)
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On a campaign tour in the Midwest, Obama himself embraces the term "Obamacare" and says the law shows "I do care." (credit:BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

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