Reflections on Psychiatry, Therapy, and Mental Health

Ketamine may be the flower girl that is walking down the isle toward a marriage of biological and psychological psychiatry. We say this because the science tells us that Ketamine has a strong biological effect in benefiting patients. At the same time, it is somewhat of an hallucinogen, and has been described as an abreactive drug, that is, a drug that brings into consciousness thoughts and feelings that may be hard to access in ordinary states. In effect, Ketamine leads to

It's natural to wonder what role psychiatric medications should have in the treatment of mental disorders. I have, of course, thought about this for years and have come to the conclusion that our medications don't treat diagnoses nearly as much as they do dimensions of functioning. What I mean by this is that for any given diagnosis there are a cluster of symptoms associated with that diagnosis. Depression for example is characterized by sleep problems, low mood, often an

Most of us heard the story of Narcissus in our childhood: he falls in love with his reflected image, and becomes so fixated that he eventually tumbles into the water and drowns. Children get the message of the fable; Narcissus is foolish, as foolish as the three little pigs, or the emperor without clothes, all of whom we readily saw through, even as children. Healthy Narcissism and Psychological Development The term Narcissism, however, is maligned. While I make this complai