Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

As a psychodynamic therapist, I have spent much of my career studying and treating personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder. Yet in recent years, another topic has increasingly captured my attention: mood temperament. Much of the credit belongs to my friend and colleague, psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University and Harvard Medical School. Through our many conversations about mood disorders, bipolar illness, and psychiatric diagnosis, he introduced me to a concept that receives surprisingly little attention in contemporary psychiatry and psychotherapy: hyperthymic temperament. Most mental health professionals are familiar with depression and mania. Far fewer are familiar with the idea…

The red band trailer for Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man dropped this week and the horror internet has not calmed down since. The premise is straightforward and deeply wrong. A mysterious ice cream man rolls into Bayleen Bay, a sun drenched seaside town that looks like it was designed by someone who wanted to make a suburb feel like a threat, and he starts serving his customers something with a little extra. What that extra ingredient does is turn children into killers. Enthusiastic, focused, committed killers. The adults of Bayleen Bay are not having a good summer. Ari Millen stars…

When a child is struggling emotionally, parents will do almost anything to help. They search online late into the night. They sit on waiting lists. They read books and articles. They attend appointments, rearrange work schedules, and worry constantly about whether they are doing enough. Yet many parents discover something unexpected once treatment begins. They find themselves on the sidelines. While professionals focus on assessing, diagnosing, and treating their child, parents are often left with little understanding of how they can contribute to recovery. This arrangement has become so normal that we rarely question it. Yet it raises an important…

There are many reasons to reboot a franchise. Frequently, it’s financial gain. Sometimes, it’s a resurgence of nostalgia. But with 2026’s Scary Movie, it’s personal.  The Wayans brothers were effectively booted from their own franchise after Scary Movie 2, citing pay disputes with nightmare producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Their baby, their comedic labors, were hijacked by monstrous suits who handed the reins to David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun, Baseketball). It’s been over two decades since Hollywood robbed the Wayans boys, but they’re back now, with a horror satire driven by spoofy Ghostface hijinks and barbed vengeance—cocked, locked, and ready…

ALISON BEARD: Welcome to HBR On Leadership. I’m HBR Executive Editor Alison Beard. On this show, we share case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock the best in those around you. We carefully curate this feed from across the HBR portfolio, aiming to help you unlock your next level of leadership. I hope you enjoy the episode. ALISON BEARD: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Alison Beard. We all know the stereotypes of leaders who use charisma, manipulation, domineering behavior, or their status in the hierarchy to…

It’s a true David vs. Goliath matchup: Victor Wembanyama vs. Jalen Brunson. This year’s NBA Finals is a rematch of the last time the Knicks made it to the championship series, way back at the conclusion of the 1998-99 season. In that Finals, the Spurs defeated the Knicks in five games. Now, New York gets a shot to get its lick back, nearly 30 years later. Regardless, whichever team wins this series will need huge performances from its star players. Let’s check out the odds for NBA Finals MVP as of June 4 at FanDuel Sportsbook. This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports…

SKYBOUND GAMES TAKES ON PUBLISHING OF ZOMBIE SURVIVAL FPS SKER RITUAL: “Skybound Entertainment – the creator-first, multiplatform entertainment studio behind globally recognized franchises including Invincible™, The Walking Dead™, Impact Winter™ and Stillwater™ is now publishing Sker Ritual through Skybound Games, in partnership with 5th Planet Games. The zombie-survival first-person shooter from award-winning development studio Wales Interactive is the spiritual successor to the survival horror game Maid of Sker. Sker Ritual was first released in 2024 and has since gained a significant global audience and notable acclaim, most recently receiving multiple nominations for the 2026 MCV Awards to be held in London later this month. Under the new publishing agreement,…

If you were the family scapegoat, you may have spent years believing you were the problem. You may have been blamed for conflict, criticized more harshly than others, or told you were difficult, dramatic, selfish, or too sensitive. These messages shape how you see yourself and your role in the family. You become the focus instead of the family dysfunction you’re reacting to. This post examines how that role develops in dysfunctional families and why it is often assigned to the person who challenges the family narrative. It also looks at the strengths that can develop in the person placed…

Kelly Thompson and Stephen Byrne are teaming up for a brand-new Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book series from Dynamite Entertainment! With the first issue available this July, I caught up with Thompson to learn all about the new series, working with Byrne, and Thompson teases the upcoming Angel series as well: Can you discuss your first experiences with the Buffy TV show and the impact the series and character had on you? Kelly Thompson: So I don’t exactly when it was that I saw it, but my first episode was actually PROPHECY GIRL — the finale episode of the…

In Hindu philosophy, human life is described as unfolding in four distinct stages, or ashramas. The third stage, Vanaprastha, marks a powerful turning point: a transition from a life centered around career, achievement, and worldly responsibilities into a stage of reflection, wisdom, and spiritual growth. Often translated as “the forest dweller,” Vanaprastha symbolizes a literal and figurative walk into the forest—away from external roles, ego identities, and societal expectations. It’s a time when one begins to hand over responsibilities to the next generation, take on a more advisory role, and cultivate a deeper connection to self, nature, and the transcendent.…