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
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
Trump: Expert at Gaslighting
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” President Trump “Gaslighting” is a form of persistent manipulation and brainwashing that causes the victim to doubt her perception, her memory, and ultimately her sanity. The term is derived from the 1944 film Gaslight, in which a husband tries to convince his wife that she’s insane by causing her to … Read More
Don’t Tolerate Trump
When I went to Washington D.C. for the Women’s March last January with my daughter, granddaughter and partner, I never thought we citizens would tolerate a President who has consistently displayed nothing but arrogant, erratic, belligerent and vengeful behavior. What is it going to take for Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment to protect us from his reckless taunts to … Read More
Princess Leia Cast a Light on Bipolar Illness
Carrie Fisher did not shirk her role as an advocate for the de-stigmatization of bipolar illness. She brought the subject of bipolar into the popular culture in her writing and her one-woman show, “Wishful Drinking” where she first posited the idea of “Bipolar Pride Day.” Ms. Fisher was first diagnosed with bipolar at age 24 but like many people who … Read More
Stop Stigma
Welcome to those of you who have been loyal followers of my blog on mental illness, addiction and criminal justice reform. I will continue blogging on these topics from my new blog on this website. I hope you will continue to follow the blog and raise awareness about mental illness, addiction and criminal justice so that we can remove the … Read More
Why ARE We Afraid of the Mentally Ill?
Last month 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier was shot dead by a Chicago police officer after his father placed a 911 call because LeGrier was acting irrationally, wielding a baseball bat. This was not his first confrontation with the law but the death of LeGrier, who suffered from mental illness, gained national attention because a bystander was also killed. 10 days after … Read More
Heroic Actions for Prisoners’ Human Rights
A Psychologist Warden in Chicago and a Federal Court Decision in California address Prisoners’ Human Rights There are now 10 times as many mentally ill people in the nation’s 5000 jails and prisons as there are in state mental institutions. And these prisoners are more likely to be kept in solitary confinement and to be beaten by guards and other … Read More
Report on Treatment of Mental Illness in Prisons by Human Rights Watch
Those of you who have been reading my blog know that our prisons have become the largest mental illness institutions in the United States. An estimated one in five prisoners in the US has a serious mental illness including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and major depression. I thought I had read everything about the despicable treatment the mentally ill receive … Read More
Rethinking Mental Illness
Both the British Psychological Association and the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health have instigated a new method of researching mental illness. In the past, researchers were driven by biologically diagnostic categorization drawing a sharp distinction between those who are ill and those who are well. This approach failed to find any clear biological distinction between such illnesses as depression, schizophrenia … Read More
The Neglect of Mental Illness is the Enemy
The man who shot and killed a Canadian soldier at Canada’s National War Memorial and manned an assault on Parliament Hill on October 22nd was not a part of a well-resourced terrorist organization but instead suffered from untreated mental illness and addiction. In spite of his recurring attempts to get treatment in jail by committing robberies, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was refused … Read More
Treatment Instead of Jail for the Mentally Ill in Los Angeles County
It is time to stop housing people who are mentally ill and genuinely sick between the streets and our jails. This is an unconscionable waste of human life and money.
New Treatment for Mentally Ill Inmates: Reduce Pepper Spray
In an article in the Los Angeles Times, Paige St. John writes that California has decided to use special solitary confinement units to house mentally ill inmates as part of an attempt to comply with federal court orders to improve their care. Instead of using pepper spray to calm them down, isolation is the new treatment for the mentally ill. … Read More
A $650 Million Donation for Psychiatric Research
Recently it was announced in the New York Times that Ted Stanley, age 84, has donated $650 million for psychiatric research. The reason for his generous grant is that his son, Jonathan Stanley, had a psychotic episode in 1988 and was lucky enough to receive effective treatment after a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The older Stanley marvels at the difference … Read More