Justice Alito has determined that women do not have the right to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term but what about their male partners? Why aren’t more men protesting this decision that will impact them emotionally and financially? Since 5 old men and 1 woman have determined that women must bear unwanted pregnancies, under current law, … Read More
Bill Cosby and Me
Fat Albert first appeared in l967 during one of Bill Cosby’s stand-up comedy routines. The character of Fat Albert was based on Cosby’s tales about the neighborhood where he grew up in North Phillie. He had a distinctive voice; you knew Fat Albert was around because of his distinctive baritone, “Hey Hey Hey.” All the high school kids I taught … Read More
Languishing
If you’re feeling blah as we come out of the pandemic, the name of this feeling, according to Adam Grant of the New York Times, is “languishing.” “Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness” he writes. “It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield.” One of my psychotherapy clients put … Read More
They Look Like Me
Speaking about the incredible failure by law enforcement in D. C. to prepare for and contain the mob rampage through the Capitol on January 6th, R. P. Eddy, a former American counterterrorism official and diplomat said, “There was a failure among law enforcement to imagine that people who ‘look like me’ would do this.” Not only was there a failure … Read More
The 30th Anniversary of The Heroine’s Journey
I wrote The Heroine’s Journey 30 years ago when women of my generation sought validation from patriarchal systems and found them not only lacking but terribly destructive to the feminine psyche. We were the children of the post-Sputnik era who were encouraged to excel in this competitive race in order to recover Western supremacy. Unfortunately, the historical cycle is repeating … Read More
Teaching Children to Reverse Opioid Overdoses
In the midst of front page news about the coronavirus, the Weinstein convictions, the ups and downs of competitors to capture the Democratic presidential nomination, I bet you missed the shocking news that children as young as 6 years old are being taught how to administer Narcan to save their mother or father from an overdose. Carter County Tennessee, next … Read More
The Evolution of Youth Drug Use
Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs according to a new federal survey of 8th, 10th and 12th graders. This is due to an effort in the US to discourage drug use including stricter school penalties, smoking bans, and general public awareness campaigns including lawsuits against opioid manufacturers. “There has been a whole lot … Read More
The Reality Show That Is Trump
Last Sunday, TV critic James Poniewozik wrote an opinion piece in the NY Times reminding us that Donald Trump is not a real person but confirming that he is a TV character. I found the article enlightening. As a psychotherapist by profession, I had been faux diagnosing Trump from the early days of his presidency with a slew of DSM-V … Read More
Do Men Who Perpetuate Mass Shootings Hate Women?
California Governor Gavin Newsom recently pointed out that mass shootings are almost exclusively perpetrated by men, adding that a discussion of this “is missing from the national conversation.” He got me wondering if this was true and if it was time to begin a conversation. I started reading research about the fact that many of the gunmen in mass shootings … Read More
Corporate Greed Fuels the Opioid Crisis
For some time the focus of the opioid crisis has been on the doctors who run pill mills, the pharmacies who dispense opioid pills by the thousands, and the Sacklers, the family that controls and profits from Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin. Now the attorneys general in New York, Vermont, and Washington State are going after the distributors of … Read More
Good News in Dayton: Drug Deaths Decline
This year drug deaths in Dayton, Ohio are down by 54% compared to last year. A manufacturing center at the junction of two major interstates, Dayton had one of the highest opioid overdose death rates in the U.S. in 2017. For the first time in years the number of opioid deaths nationwide have begun to decline according to the CDC … Read More
Why I Didn’t Report
This past weekend, I was at an event in Louisville, Kentucky with alumni of Yale University. This was before there was a demonstration at the Yale Law School by faculty, staff, and students protesting Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court and allegations about out of control drinking at Yale. I was talking with an alumnus whom I consider politically … Read More
The Patriarchy is Crumbling
The patriarchy is crumbling and it’s about time! Last week a grand jury in Pennsylvania reported that 300 priests abused at least 1000 children over a period of 70 years and it was known and covered up by the bishops of the Catholic hierarchy. The 900-page document released by the attorney general listed more than 300 abusive priests by name … Read More
72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
Coroners in San Diego County have taken a bold new approach to persuade doctors to curb opioid prescribing. The San Diego County’s chief deputy medical examiner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas, sent letters to physicians about their possible role in the escalating opioid abuse epidemic. The doctors received a letter stating: “This is a courtesy communication to inform you that your patient … Read More