I am surprised how many patients who have just turned 18 come and tell me at our first meeting: “School isn’t for me.” I try to ask why they have made the devastating decision to limit schooling. When they are willing to explore with me, the answer almost always comes down to the same thing.
“I can’t remember what I read.” Read more on How To Remember What You Read…
Although I am an “adult psychiatrist” on paper, in reality I have seen plenty of young men who fit into my criteria of 18-or-over but to me are functionally children.
They usually think I am functionally — well, grandmother-like — so from the moment they see me they have very little interest in listening to what I say.
Granted, since I see folks who have already done something to get themselves into the mental health system, the young folks of whom I am thinking may not be an accurate cross-section of young human male humanity.
Still, they all say almost exactly the same thing.
“All I need is a job.” Read more on Boys in Late Adolescence Looking For Jobs…
Filed under Government, News by on Sep 4th, 2014. Comment. 
The car was parked but the engine was running. Just like me – My body was idle but my brain was running.
As I’ve mentioned before, I love to accompany my husband to various stores, but prefer to let him run in to pick up whatever we need while I wait in the car. I have another companion while he is gone – Public Radio.
I have a friend who is a talented stand-up comic. She’s not in the “big time” but plays the circuit of comedy clubs across the country. One of her routines is about the time she and her then-husband (you’ll see why they divorced in a few moments) stopped at a convenience store for gas during a cross-country trip.
While husband was inside paying for the gas, my friend decided to go inside for a cold drink or a candy bar. She wasn’t dressed formally, by any means – her hair was up in rollers to prepare for the evening’s performance, and she was wearing sweats. Read more on Funding Science Should Be A Priority…
Filed under Education, Government, News, politics, Religion, Science by on Feb 7th, 2012. Comment.
Wouldn’t it be fun to just sit in front of the TV all day and watch your favorite shows?
Actually, it’s pretty darn depressing. Anyway, that’s what I have noticed, and now it’s official.
I cannot begin to guess the number of people I have diagnosed as depressed who watch television all day. I’ve noticed it for a long time, and part of my standard examination is to find out what people do with their daily lives.
Short answer – couch potato.
Most of the time these folks aren’t actually trying to change their lives or get better. This isn’t just a simple, “Oh, I gotta catch Jerry Springer!” or “Oprah is supposed to be good today!” Read more on TV And Depression…
Filed under depression, News by on Nov 25th, 2011. Comment.
Once my husband found one of those funny videos that is called “Viral” because of the way it spreads across the internet like wildfire. This one was an episode of a 1950s game show.
Like many shows of the era, it had a sponsor’s name and logo prominently displayed in every camera shot – the backdrop of the set where the panel sat and I think even the desk fronts of the panelists. The sponsor was Raleigh cigarettes.
The show had made the rounds of the video sites because it was so hilariously biased. The simple quiz format always yielded the same answer –
“What is the capital of North Carolina?” Read more on Infiltrating Medical School and Continuing Education…
Filed under big pharma by on Jul 20th, 2011. Comment.
I am not surprised at all that the findings of this study show young people in college don’t learn much in the first two years. I don’t think they learn much in all four. I was delighted that someone has the brass gonads to take these findings and make them public.
I am not sure how a standardized test would measure critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and writing skills, but let us assume for the moment that it does at least some of that.
I spent a hunk of my career on the faculty of a few medical schools. It never would have occurred to me to try to do anything at all with those allegedly useful four years of “pre-med” college education. It was too evident to me that nothing was happening intellectually. I could not wait to get out of there and get right to medical school. I was marking time to get a bachelor’s degree, and the only reason was to get to medical school. The passion was for medicine, not for the four years of undergraduate college.
Read more on A Dearth of Knowledge and The Death of Knowledge…
Filed under Education by on Mar 14th, 2011. Comment.
There is a story about myself which I don’t enjoy telling. As a matter of fact, believe it or not, I don’t much like to talk about my own strange history. But my husband gives me cues. We were having a pleasant luncheon with a person with whom we wanted to have a working relationship. Since it was mostly business and financial, and I have never claimed such things to be my “strong suit,” my husband did most of the talking. I think the person we were with, although he said little, wondered at least a little if I were clever enough to do the scientific and medical part of the consulting we were talking about. So my husband said it.
“Tell him about when you got expelled from 4th grade.”
Nobody asked my age, but after some precocious grade-skipping, I was, as far as I can figure, 8 going on 9. I was in a local public school, in a city where the school system was of very low repute. My father of blessed memory had done a little substitute teaching several years before, and the superintendent of schools was a “friend of the family.” Read more on How The Gifted Child Got Expelled…
Filed under Brain, News by on Aug 3rd, 2010. 1 Comment.
Body mass index cutoff for college graduation? Give me a break.
It is idiotic to foster prejudice against the obese at an institution of higher learning when we know that people are discriminated against for jobs by their weight. To offer courses and help is good. To confound intellectual output with girth is just plain stupid.
Has anyone ever been refused a university degree because they failed to quit smoking? Has anyone ever been refused a degree for non-compliance with any kind of medical treatment? Obese people do not get the same quality of medical care as non-obese people. Yes, there are lifestyle changes that seem to be able to help. But there are also a large variety of putative interventions that may help, or theories. Obese people do not even get the right size of chairs or gowns when they get into a doctor’s office. Read more on A College Degree Based On Your Figure…
Filed under Prejudice by on Jan 19th, 2010. Comment.