I received my ‘life sentence’ from a Montana psychiatrist at the tender age of 22. I was diagnosed with Bipolar because I had what he called a ‘chemical imbalance’ in my brain and would need to take medicine to treat it for the rest of my life. At the time I was struggling to deal with the aftermath of… Continue Reading
Archives for January 2016
Are ‘Psychiatric Disorders’ Brain Diseases?
Steven Reidbord MD is a board-certified psychiatrist who practices in San Francisco. He writes a blog called Reidbord’s Reflections. On December 12, 2015, he posted an article titled Are psychiatric disorders brain diseases? It’s an interesting and thought-provoking piece, with many twists and turns. Here are some quotes, interspersed with my comments and reflections. “Of… Continue Reading
Dr. Pies on the Dearth of Civility
On December 3, 2015, Ronald Pies, MD, published Campus Protests, Narcissism, and the Dearth of Civility on Psychiatric Times. The article is subtitled: What can we do, as a society, to reduce the levels of incivility and narcissism that appear to be on the rise? Here are some quotes: “…I believe we are witnessing the… Continue Reading
Robert Spitzer’s Legacy
Robert Spitzer, MD, the architect of DSM-III (1980), died of heart disease on Christmas Day, 2015, at age 83. Most major media outlets published obituaries in which Dr. Spitzer was praised on the grounds that he had brought scientific rigor to psychiatry by naming and defining the various psychiatric illnesses. Here are a few illustrative… Continue Reading