NY Times roundup

Here are three recent New York Times articles that caught my eye. On March 13th, Tara Parker-Pope’s health blog “Well” reprinted “The 12 Most Annoying Habits of Therapists.” Actually, the list comes from PsychCentral, a blog written by psychologist John M. Grohol, and in my opinion reads better there. I won’t list all 12 habits […]

Psychiatric disability and service animals

This post has taken a while to percolate, and has turned into two posts. As often happens, what got me thinking was an article in the New York Times, this time on the expanding definition and use of service animals by the disabled. Service animals now go far beyond Seeing Eye dogs. The article introduces […]

Online anonymity and transference

I’ve been online quite a few years now. Actually, I first used the internet in college in the late 1970s. There were only a handful of non-governmental university sites back then, and I happened to be an undergraduate at one of them. A decade later, in the late 1980s, I was a member of the […]

Healthy political competition

In watching the concession and acceptance speeches last night, I was struck by the apparently sincere willingness of both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama to “reach across the aisle” and work together after their bitter campaign fight. To me, this feels much like a hard-fought sports competition, where in the heat of battle each side […]

Are bad times good for psychiatrists?

Life seems stressful these days. With the current economic crisis and impending national election, there is a sense of instability in the air. Many Americans have seen their retirement investments dwindle, many others cannot find car or home loans. Most of us wonder what the future will hold.

Acquaintances occasionally ask me if this situation […]