Event overview
Psychology Department Research Seminars
Abstract
Humans throughout history have described a peculiar state between sleep and wakefulness characterized by paralysis, conscious awareness of one’s surroundings, and terrifying hallucinations. We currently term this phenomenon sleep paralysis, but it has gone by many other names depending upon time and place.
After discussing some of the connections between sleep paralysis symptoms and putatively paranormal phenomena, data from two studies will be presented. The first study involves a sample of psychiatric patients suffering from both sleep paralysis and panic attacks. The second is a large, two-site study of 185 students with sleep paralysis from different coasts of the United States. Subjects in both studies were administered clinical interviews by trained diagnosticians.
Biography
Brian A. Sharpless, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the American School of Professional Psychology (ASPP) at Argosy University, Washington DC. After completing his graduate training at Pennsylvania State University, he completed his internship, post-doctoral clinical fellowship, and post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to his position at ASPP, he was on faculty at Pennsylvania State University and Washington State University. Dr. Sharpless has broad research interests in psychopathology and psychotherapy with recent publications focusing on lesser-known disorders (e.g., exploding head syndrome, taijin kyofusho), psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the history/philosophy of clinical psychology.
His books Sleep Paralysis: Historical Psychological, and Medical Perspectives (co-authored with Dr. Karl Doghramji, M.D.) and Unusual and Rare Psychological Disorders: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Research (Edited) are both available through Oxford University Press.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Nov 2016 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
Accessibility
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