The Roving Psychologist

Investigating the minds of people who run our world

by John D. Gartner, Ph.D.

Has Psychiatry Been Corrupted Beyond Repair?

We know that corporations can show few scruples in hiding the damage done by their products. Cigarette makers hid the link to lung cancer for decades. Energy companies and their political allies deny any link between burning fossil fuels and global warming. But no industry has been as systematic nor as successful as drug companies in infiltrating the knowledge base concerning their products. Read More

Malpractice Is the Standard of Care When Medicating Hypomanics

"Above all do no harm." That's the Hippocratic Oath, the first commandment of medical ethics since 400 B.C. Yet, I believe, most psychiatrists are harming their hypomanic patients by overprescribing mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics that make them overweight, sedated, cognitively dulled and depressed. Read More

Charlie Sheen: Hypomania's Poster Boy

"When they discuss hypomania on the Today Show, I'll know my work is done," I told a close colleague when my book, The Hypomanic Edge, was published in 2005. At that time, very few outside the mental health field had ever heard of hypomania, which is why so many people have asked me after the publication of the book if I invented the term, which of course I did not. Read More

Hypomanic Nation

America has the highest rates of bipolar disorder according to an eleven-nation NIMH study published in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry. Read More

The Peacemaker

Former president Clinton, whose visit to North Korea won the freedom of two captured American journalists, may be the most prolific peacemaker of all time. His unique ability in this area is rooted in his psychology. Because he played the role of peacemaker in his troubled alcoholic family, it is a role he is driven to perform. Read More

The Amazing Emanuel Brothers

Three brothers: a natural experiment in the nature and nurture of success. Read More

America's undiplomatic top diplomat

“Hillary Rodham Clinton's blunt and unadorned style of diplomacy has been evident throughout her first trip as secretary of state the past week in Asia. Read More

What to do with Bill?

It's stunning how fast Bill Clinton's stock plummeted - faster, it seemed, than the Dow Jones industrial average after the fall of Lehman Brothers. When Hillary Clinton launched her bid for the presidency, the question was: How would she deploy "the greatest politician in our generation"? Read More

How Will Obama Lead?

This historic election is over, and now the question becomes how will Barack Obama lead? To understand how an Obama White House might be similar to or different from that of his immediate predecessors, Bush and Clinton, it pays to compare and contrast the three men on two components of their basic temperaments: curiosity and hypomania. Clinton was both hypomanic and curious. Read More

Palin is the one pallin' with extremists

"Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country," said Sarah Palin, referring to Obama's glancing association with William Ayers a reformed 1960s radical who served with Obama on a charity board. That hardly makes them pals. Read More

Palin is more like Bush than Bush himself, Part I: Lack of curiosity

Palin has energized the bases, both of them. On the right, she has been greeted as a rock star, while on the left she has been described as reason to move to Canada, if she wins. But how much do we know about Palin and how she thinks? Read More

Why Does Bill Clinton Keep Saying Nice Things About John McCain?

During this week Bill Clinton has appeared on a series of national television shows talking about the presidential campaign. On The View, he addressed the fact that people have criticized him for saying nice things about John McCain. "I've made everyone mad during this election because I genuinely like both candidates. I genuinely admire both candidates. Read More