Mood Swings

He didn't get the chances he should have; he wasn't appreciated enough for what he did; but, in the end, Coach George Allen went out a winner. Read More

We have an allergy to calling anything in psychiatry normal, because we don't want to call things abnormal. Read More

The psychology of Martin Luther King's leadership... and his depression. Read More

Mental illness and leadership: if there is a link, why do people intuitively seem for or against? Read More

Of the many encomia Steven Jobs has received after his recent death, few have focused on not just how special he was, but why he was so special. Here it is: Like so many great leaders, he was crazy enough to think differently. Read More

A writer for the stolid journal Foreign Policy recently attacked former VP Cheney for not admitting to any mistakes after 9/11, and called him a "maniac", criticizing my views on the benefits of manic symptoms for enhancing creativity and resilience. But being manic is not the same as being a "maniac". Let's stop stigmatizing, and start thinking honestly. Read More

It strikes many as odd to say that mental illness can be good. But this may only seem odd because we make an assumption that all illness is always bad, a clearly false claim. Read More

"Countertransference hate" is the infelicitous phrase; the therapist hates the patient. This may not sound right; after all, all professionals should have "compassion" to their patients, shouldn't they; but does that mean they should "like" them? Read More

Was it right for Americans to celebrate the killing of Bin Laden? Read More

Art imitates reality, they say. Our movie critics and cultural popinjays - and even many of us mental health professionals - haven't begun to fathom what this reality is. Read More

I recently met a colleague who had been on the Harvard faculty for about twenty years. He finally left about two years ago to go to a state university psychiatry program in the mid-Atlantic region. "I came to Harvard thirty years ago to find an intellectual environment. I found it only after I left." Read More

"Think where man's glory most begins and ends,
And say my glory was I had such friends" Read More

What is psychiatric disease? What diagnoses should be in future DSMs?   Why is anti-Pharma ideology tired?  Read More

We seem uncomfortable when someone is caught in a political lie, as in the Sherrod case. Why is this so? Early 20th century journalist HL Mencken gives us some insights.  Read More