Blogs

Here, a psychiatrist interviews Charlie Maher, PsyD, CC-AASP, author of The Complete Mental Game of Baseball: Taking Charge of the Process On and Off the Field. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Maher is Professor Emeritus of Applied Psychology at Rutgers University, and serves as the Director of Psychological Services for the Cleveland Indians.

I can just sense the uproar now. Dr. Moffic wants state hospitals again? Has he lost it? Well, yes. I do, sort of. Here’s why.

Psychology and psychiatry at the turn of the last century considered the will an indispensable category. Not so today.

After seeing Death of a Salesman on Broadway, I knew I had seen something extraordinary—but it was only after a few days’ separation from the performance when my mind cleared and my emotions settled that I realized 2 of the reasons that made me very appreciative to see this play as a young psychiatrist.

An excellent study has killed two birds with one stone. It is a clear caution against the DSM-5 proposal for a psychosis risk syndrome and it should temper enthusiasm for rushing ahead with "ultra high risk" prevention programs.

Which diagnostic manual do you use?

Opponents in the now well-worn, “Bereavement Exclusion” debate can probably agree on one thing: of all the proposed changes in the DSM-5, the move to eliminate the bereavement exclusion has ignited the most intense emotional reaction among the general public.

The paradigm for modern psychiatry is evidence-based medicine (EBM)—it represents proven treatments for defined diagnoses. But there are major problems with this position, starting with the fact that while they are superior to placebo, evidence-based treatments too often are ineffective.

In the case of orthorexic thinking, clinicians, patients, and their loved ones are bombarded by the same cultural tropes about our bodies and their relationship with the environment in which we live.

My experience indicates that the SVP laws are being implemented in a highly arbitrary and idiosyncratic fashion with judges and juries easily confused by misleading expert testimony.