We talk often about the role of genetics in shaping our character. Because as always, what it is to be human involves both nature and nurture. I have already addressed the nurture part in “Psychotherapy Is ‘The’ Biological Treatment.” Here is the nature part: the role that genetic temperament plays as to how specific symptoms […]
Stranger Than Fiction The documentary Three Identical Strangers by filmmaker Tim Wardle takes us (spoiler alert!) from fun and frothy to a surprising left turn about the evils of human experimentation. The film raises moral questions that lead us, unsuspectingly, to a very dark place. When Bobby Shafran went off to college at age 19, he was […]
I was driving in Cambridge in a blinding snow storm on Thanksgiving Day, 1970. When I braked to slow down, my car didn’t stop, it just kept on skidding. I slowly continued on. When I approached the stop light at Memorial Hall, I braked far in advance of the light and skidded twenty feet until […]
“The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one’s own.” Willa Cather I can’t call him Tony because I have never met him. He is Anthony to me. I only know him from his show, ‘Parts Unknown’. I never read Kitchen Confidential, which is now […]
“It was gloomy and cloudy. The forest was filled with darkness. A grotesque ogre was chasing me through a primordial forest. I was running down a dirt path surrounded by gnarled trees and overhanging vines. The misshapen giant took one step to my three. Fortunately, I was faster and more cunning. It was […]
I saw your documentary ‘Jane’ last night. You don’t need me to tell you it was perfecto. She was clearly destined to fulfill her passion. I am impressed that you stayed away from pandering which would have been very easy to do. You showed the fullness of her character and struggles, consistent with ‘Montage of […]
I was thinking about the torture parents, David and Louise Turpin and their thirteen children, and Larry Nassar, the pedophile doctor who preyed on hundreds of innocent girls. As a psychiatrist I have heard many horrific stories of child abuse from my patients, each one worse than the last. When I think I have reached […]
Today I read a follow-up article by Nicholas Kristoff in NY Times, February 4, 2018. ‘Woody Allen Meets #MeToo’ about the incestuous molestation of Dylan Farrow. I wrote a blog four years ago about his original article written in 2014. In the light of the cultural changes that have happened recently, it is timely once again. Because […]
I am very pleased that to announce that Medscape has hired me to write a series of blogs for them. I am honored to have this opportunity and I very much appreciate their interest. The first one will be coming out shortly and will be reprinted here.
Forty-three years before Freud arrived on the scene with the Interpretation of Dreams, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. He taught us all we need to know about character formation, the effects of trauma, and the healing process of mourning. This most illuminating story prefigures the Psychotherapy of Character and is an exemplar of […]