a significant technical advancement over conventional TMS I enjoy the challenge of trying to understand, and sometimes trying to help others understand complex technologies. Stanford Accelerated Neuromodulation or SAINT, the very powerful treatment for severe depression, is one technology that is worthwhile explaining to others. If I get it right in this essay, you will have a practical understanding that is not superficial but at the same time does not get into distracting details. In...

On the Growing Presence of AI It is estimated that millions of people use AI as a companion and it is likely that many of us have patients talking about AI. Amongst those of us in mental health, this invites the question, can AI contribute to therapy. I don't think it is possible to draw many conclusions at this time about the relative effectiveness of AI as a therapist, but considering this issue leads us to take a hard look at what psychotherapy is. That is, AI juxtaposed with therapy...

Recently I ran across a YouTube video by a sleep expert who suggested a little exercise that might be helpful for middle-of-the-night wakers. He suggested remaining relaxed and randomly picking letters from the alphabet then doing a little word association thinking of words that begin with the chosen letter. One night I gave this a try and noticed that in my relaxed state I tended to personalize a fair amount of the words. 'C,' for example lead to: Cape Cod, Catholic, Caribbean, Candy Cane...