In Memoriam: 2 Terrible Ironies of Being a Psychiatrist
Key Takeaways
- Personal psychodynamic factors often influence the decision to pursue psychiatry, as seen in the careers of Dr. Carlson and Dr. Williams.
- Dr. Carlson, a geriatric psychiatrist, succumbed to brain cancer, highlighting the tragic irony of his profession's focus on the brain.
Two promising psychiatrists have tragically passed away.
PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS
There are many possible motivations that may be important in choosing to become a psychiatrist. Often, there is something psychodynamically important personally in one’s history that needs to be addressed, fulfilled, or changed. As I mentioned in the last column, for me, one of the motivating factors was being a child that indirectly came out of the Holocaust, leading to a major recent career focus on anti-Semitism.
Two recent deaths may indicate such a psychological connection, but with even sadder than usual endings for these early career psychiatrists.
David M. Carlson, MD
Dr Carlson died on October 5, 2025, at the age of 39 of brain cancer. Here, the terrible irony is that a field that focuses on the brain has that brain seemingly turn and become deadly cancerous for the psychiatrist.
He actually was diagnosed with that brain cancer in 2016 while in medical school, but was able to return to school and graduate in 2019. In 2024, after he finished his training, he came to Yale to work as a geriatric psychiatrist, working with those of an age that he would never come close to personally reaching. His cancer returned not long after that work transition.
He was also an entrepreneur who focused on early medical career desired, founding PreMed HQMCAT, an online medical school preparation program.
He married a nurse who cared for him during hospitalization and they had a son together.
Nolan Williams, MD
Dr Williams also died recently, on October 8, 2025, at the age of 43.
He worked at Stanford, starting in 2014, where he set up a Brain Stimulation Lab focusing on trying to find more rapid-acting treatments, including with the psychedelic ibogaine. His work with that psychedelic, available in Mexico, was reported in a March 5, 2024, New York Times article titled “Powerful Psychedelic Gains New Attention as a Treatment for Opioid Addiction.”1 His high-tech therapy was called the Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Treatment (SAINT), with much reported success for remission.
The terrible irony, as just reported in the November 12, 2025, New York Times article “Nolan Williams, Who Stimulated the Brain to Treat Depression, Dies at 43,”2 was that Dr Williams also suffered from depression. It was uncertain whether he tried any of his treatments, but he was reported to have died from suicide. His wife was also a psychiatrist and research collaborator. They had 2 children.
Our recent columns have focused on the so-called tricks and treats of Halloween and the celebration of ancestors in the Day of the Dead. Both of these psychiatrists provided so many treats for their patients, but their lives ended with the irony of their focused knowledge being unable to help save themselves. Still, their work provides more leads and promise of clinical psychiatric treats for the future, and their lives must be viewed as a major psychiatric blessing.
Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.
References
1. Jacobs A. Powerful psychedelic gains new attention as a treatment for opioid addiction. New York Times. March 5, 2024. Accessed November 13, 2025.
2. Sandomir R. Nolan Williams, who stimulated the brain to treat depression, dies at 43. New York Times. November 11, 2025. Accessed November 13, 2025.
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