My Conflicted Relationship with Fried Chicken.
They are clear memories from my youth: After riding our bikes along the beach on warm summer mornings, my parents frequently picked up a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. After we settled into our...
View ArticleA Review of the National Council for Behavioral Health Conference.
Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know that I spent much of last week in Las Vegas. I attended the National Council for Behavioral Health Conference, “featuring the best in leadership,...
View ArticleEntitlement.
“Do you have any questions for me?” I asked. It’s how I usually close clinical interviews. It’s also a way to acknowledge how one-sided the interviews are. “Will you go out on a date with me?” he...
View ArticleBridges, Frustration, and Coping.
The longest floating bridge in the world is in Seattle. It is 7,710 feet (2,350 meters) long and spans beautiful Lake Washington. Locals call it the “520 bridge” and, in its current incarnation, only...
View ArticleOn Trigger Warnings.
A reader I respect asked me for my thoughts on trigger warnings. Per Wikipedia, trigger warnings are “warnings that the ensuing content contains strong writing or images which could unsettle those with...
View ArticleFive Things You Can Do When You Have to Talk to Someone You Don’t Like.
We all have to talk to people we don’t like, whether in our professional or personal lives. We try to avoid these people. We try to work around them. Sometimes we spend a lot of energy trying to get...
View ArticleMy CV of Failures.
Several people on Twitter and Vox recently discussed “CVs of failure“. We don’t like to share our failures, though we often don’t realize how our failures resulted in opportunities. (Or maybe that’s...
View ArticleUs and Them and Homicide.
If an event doesn’t happen often, it’s difficult to predict when it will happen next. We can only talk about “risk factors”. For example, no one can predict when an earthquake will occur. We can,...
View ArticlePsychiatrists and Demonic Possession.
A colleague sent me a Washington Post article, “As a psychiatrist, I diagnose mental illness. Also, I help spot demonic possession.” After the author lists his credentials as a psychiatrist, Dr....
View ArticleBlack Lives are Also Lives.
For the past few weeks I have felt discouraged about ongoing local, national, and global violence. I felt powerless to do anything—including write—to help make things better. I could not find the words...
View ArticleInspiration from the Surgeon General.
Somehow people knew he was about to enter the room. The thirty or so people in the room were seated, though people began to stand up. “Are we supposed to stand up for the Surgeon General?” I asked the...
View ArticleWhy I Agree with the Goldwater Rule.
The New York Times and NPR recently published articles related to the Goldwater Rule. In short, a magazine sent a survey to over 12,000 psychiatrists in the US with the single question of whether they...
View ArticleA Day in Jail.
Three of us are waiting for the elevator. A few moments earlier I had walked into the jail for the day, so I have not yet donned a white coat. The other two are wearing their standard uniforms: The...
View ArticlePity.
Few people are walking the streets at 5am. Some are rolling old suitcases or holding overstuffed bags as they wander away from the shelter. Their eyes are often downcast. Sometimes they shout...
View ArticleOn the Importance of Hobbies.
During medical school, professors advised us to “have hobbies” and to “do stuff outside of medicine”: “It’ll give you have something to talk about with patients.” “It’ll help you maintain balance as...
View ArticleCompassion?
I met him about a month before the election. He was confused. He spoke only about three things: (1) his best friend, with love and affection (2) his culinary skills, with pride and wistfulness (3)...
View ArticleReflections While Writing About Psychiatry
I know I haven’t posted in a while. Someone presented me with the opportunity to write a section on psychiatry for medical students. This is wonderful (an opportunity to influence future physicians!!!)...
View ArticleOn Knowing Yourself.
I know of only two people who, upon starting medical school, knew that they wanted to become psychiatrists. (How did they know what they wanted to do eight years before they did it???) They both...
View ArticleRace.
No one was sitting near us at the fast food chain, but my dad lowered his voice anyway. “You were three or four years old,” he said. “We were watching an NBA game on TV. You asked, ‘Where are the white...
View Article(Stupid) Status Games.
I only noticed later that he had a taser on his belt, which means that he was probably a sergeant. After the doors closed and the elevator lurched into motion, he turned to me and said, “C’mon, smile!...
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