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Archives for August 2013

The Lost Weekend

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Joe was a 30 year old man I evaluated in the context of his lawsuit.

One Friday evening, after everyone had gone home, he was working late at his Manhattan office. At 7:00 PM, he went downstairs to smoke a cigarette. Heading back to the office, he entered the elevator alone. Between the 30th and 31st floors, the elevator came to a sudden stop. He pushed every button, but the doors failed to open. No one responded to the alarm. He tried using the intercom; but still no response.

After an hour, he felt a sense of dread. He knew he was stuck. It was the beginning of a weekend, and the building would be empty until Monday morning. Neither the intercom nor alarm button worked, and no one was there to hear it, anyway. Joe had no food, no toilet, nothing to occupy him, and was alone in an eight by eight foot enclosure, hanging between floors in a Manhattan skyscraper. He was trapped.

Read more on Psychology Today >>

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Listening to the Soul

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As a novelist and psychiatrist, I listened to Eleanor Longden’s lyrical presentation with a mixture of awe, admiration and humility.

She hauntingly described the “toxic, tormenting sense of helplessness” accompanying severe mental disturbance. “My voices were a meaningful response to traumatic life events. Each voice was related to aspects of myself…that I’d never had an opportunity to process or resolve, memories of sexual trauma and abuse, of anger, shame, guilt, low self-worth.” I found these statements deeply insightful.

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Crossing the Line: Sometimes Rules Are Meant to Be Broken

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Alice was a 38 year old, unmarried artist living in a Manhattan loft. She was depressed about her career and life’s direction. Above all, she was distressed that she’d been unable to sell her oil abstract paintings, although she’d displayed them at shows and at a prestigious gallery. Things had become so dire, she thought she might have to sell her loft apartment in order to pay for ordinary living expenses, and to continue painting.

She was seeing me once every two weeks for guidance and supportive sessions. At first, she was not depressed, but I become somewhat alarmed, when in addition to her lack of career success, a relationship with a man—a fellow artist—fell apart and Alice became despondent.

Read more on Psychology Today >>

 

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What’s Happening To Us?

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Let me begin by saying I have a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, an e-reader and a smartphone. I use them all and think they’re great technologic advances. In certain obvious ways, they’re a boon. So I’m not some version of Grandpa Cranky-Pants complaining about the role of technology in our lives.

But something strange is definitely happening.

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A Talk with Andrew Gross

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Andrew Gross is the best-selling author of many thrillers including The Blue Zone, Eyes Wide Open, Don’t Look Twice, 15 Seconds, and his latest novel, No Way Back. Andrew received a degree in English from Middlebury College in 1974 and a Masters in Business Policy from Columbia University

He worked for many years in the apparel business, but left the corporate world to attend the Writer’s Program at the University of Iowa. At 46, he finished a draft of his first novel, Hydra, which received dozens of rejections from agents and publishers.

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Writer-to-Writer: A Talk with Simon Toyne

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Simon Toyne is the author of the highly acclaimed Sanctus trilogy. Simon graduated from Goldsmith’s College in London with a degree in English and Drama. He worked in British television for nearly 20 years as a producer. In 2007, he left television and moved with his family to France where they lived for six months. He returned to the U.K. and continued writing, while free-lancing in television to help pay the bills. That is, until Sanctus, the first novel of the trilogy was completed and became an international best-seller. It was followed by The Key and the recently released, The Tower. All three novels have been translated into dozens of languages and are read all over the world.

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The Man in the Box

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Some years ago, I was contacted by an attorney and asked to evaluate his client, the plaintiff in a lawsuit. I’ll call her Mrs. Jones, a 35-year-old widow, who was suing a funeral home.

A year earlier, her presumably healthy 40-year-old husband, died suddenly of a massive heart attack while at the gym.

At our consultation, Mrs. Jones was obviously bereaved and quite sad. This was not out of the ordinary, because the bereavement process often takes a full two years. But, what was severely complicating this process; occasioning the lawsuit; and bringing her to my office was the following unusual story:

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