Psychiatry

University of New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert was called out by ESPN for punching, kicking, shoving, and throwing elbows against opponents after her team fell behind in a conference tournament game. In her most blatant attack, she yanked back an opponent's ponytail, ripping her to the ground.  She says she deeply regrets the incident.  Do you believe her? Read More

This week, I had the honor of speaking with experts from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the organization behind November 21's National Survivors of Suicide Day. Read on for the interview and look for one more interview from a psychologist tomorrow on how you can help a loved one. Read More

There are two months out of the year I'm not too keen on living through. One is March, obviously, since that is the month in which my father committed suicide, a month that still, almost seven years later, smells the same, looks the same and all-around feels the same as that cold day in 2003. The other month is November; well, actually, it's more like a single day. November 21 is National Survivors of Suicide Day. Read More

For more than a decade I've taught a seminar in dynamic psychotherapy to psychiatry residents. One tricky issue that arises every year is the apparent choice between conducting a "supportive" psychotherapy, versus an "analytic" or "insight-oriented" one. I developed a sailing analogy to clarify this issue, and to teach an important point about it.

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You may be surprised.
Last week twenty-year-old Jim told his mother that he has always been leery of his younger, but larger brother, Andrew. Jim's cautiousness around Andrew dates back to the time Andrew shoved him off a dump truck breaking both of Jim's wrists.   Read More

Recently I evaluated a new patient, a young woman who wondered whether medication might ease her depression. She was in therapy elsewhere, and although seeing me was her idea, she was apprehensive about adding an antidepressant. I did end up recommending one, at which point she asked: "Aren't antidepressants just a crutch?" Read More

OMG, someone is using Twitter to disparage my profession. At first I dismissed this tweeter as twitwit and even a bit of a twhiner. But then I started to wonder: Is Twitter possibly a digital oracle of wisdom? Is art therapy really a fake? Read More

At both an individual and a societal level, paranoia seems to be the mental condition du jour.  Paranoia has a way of feeding off itself - leading people to act in ways that support the paranoid delusions that assail them. Read More

Several weeks ago my mother, in her eighth or ninth year of Alzheimer’s Disease, and 63rd year of marriage, began wielding knives and trying to stab people, verbally threatening to kill my father, throwing dangerous glass objects and screaming bloody murder at her own image in the mirror—“I DON’T WANT YOU HERE, GET OUT!!!” My brother and I finally intervened and had her temporarily hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, hoping we could buy more time for her at home through stabilizing her on the right meds, and getting Dad more help. Read More