NYCOM Psychiatry Club

Some industry jokes:

You just might be a graduate student if...

...you spend more on books than on tuition.
...the words "free time" are unfamiliar to you.
...you spend Saturday morning waiting for the library to open.
...you are on a first-name basis with everyone on the library staff.
...you are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
...you have ever brought a scholarly article to a bar.
...you rate coffee shops by the availability of outlets for your laptop.
...everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
...you have ever discussed academic matters at a sporting event.
...you have ever spent more than $50 on photocopying while researching a single paper.
...there is a microfilm reader in the library that you consider "yours."
...you actually have a preference between microfilm and microfiche.
...you can tell the time of day by looking at the traffic flow at the library.
...you look forward to summers because you're more productive without the distraction of classes.
...you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
...you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
...you reflexively start analyzing those greek letters before you realize that it's a sorority sweatshirt, not an equation.
...you find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade".
...you start refering to stories like "Snow White et al."
...you frequently wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.
...you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
...you have more photocopy cards than credit cards.
...you wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication"
http://www.workjoke.com/projoke30.htm
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An MIT student spent an entire summer going to the Harvard football field every day wearing a black and white striped shirt, walking up and down the field for ten or fifteen minutes throwing birdseed all over the field, blowing a whistle and then walking off the field.
At the end of the summer, it came time for the first Harvard home football game, the referee walked onto the field and blew the whistle, and the game had to be delayed for a half hour to wait for the birds to get off of the field. The guy wrote his thesis on this, and graduated.
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Graduate Admissions Committee
Department of Psychology
Big Deal University
Collegeville, USA

Dear Committee Members:

Thanks for your letter of March 30. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection at this time.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of schools, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite your outstanding record and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my current career needs. Consequently, I will begin taking classes as a graduate student in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely Yours,
[Name Withheld]
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[Ed. note: Rogerian therapy is one of unconditional positive regard. Founded by Carl Rogers, the main technique lies in mirroring everything the patient says]
Patient to Rogerian therapist: I'm really depressed.
Therapist: I see. Yes. You are depressed.
Patient: Nothing is going well.
Therapist: Nothing well.
Patient: I feel like killing myself.
T: You're thinking of killing yourself.
P: Yes, I'm going to do it NOW.
T: You want to do it now.
P: [Jumps out window.]
T: Woosh. Splat.
------------
A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage, he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?"

She responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, "NO! I won't sleep with you tonight!" Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table.

After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology, and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations."

To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean $200?!"

http://users.erols.com/geary/psychology/

Daily Affirmations for the Unstable

I no longer need to punish, deceive or compromise myself. Unless, of
course, I want to stay employed.

A good scapegoat is nearly as welcome as a solution to the problem.

As I let go of my feelings of guilt, I can get in touch with my Inner
Sociopath.

I have the power to channel my imagination into ever-soaring levels of
suspicion and paranoia.

Today, I will gladly share my experience and advice, for there are no
sweeter words than "I told you so."

I need not suffer in silence while I can still moan, whimper and complain.

As I learn the innermost secrets of the people around me, they reward me in
many ways to keep me quiet.

I assume full responsibility for my actions, except the ones that are
someone else's fault.

I honor my personality flaws, for without them I would have no personality
at all.

Joan of Arc heard voices too.

When someone hurts me, forgiveness is cheaper than a lawsuit, but not nearly
as gratifying.

The first step is to say nice things about myself. The second, to do nice
things for myself. The third, to find someone to buy me nice things.

As I learn to trust the universe, I no longer need to carry a gun.

Just for today, I will not sit in my living room all day watching TV.
Instead I will move my TV into the bedroom.

Who can I blame for my own problems? Give me just a minute... I'll find
someone.

Why should I waste my time reliving the past when I can spend it worrying
about the future?

I will find humor in my everyday life by looking for people I can laugh at.

I am willing to make the mistakes if someone else is willing to learn from
them.

http://www.psych.upenn.edu/humor.html

WorkingForChange-Mad in the USA

And we wonder why the United States was voted off the UN Human Rights Commission in May 2001.

"The report attributes the criminalization of persons with mental illness to the closure of state mental hospitals and failure of communities to provide adequate treatment and support. In state after state, the dollars that once funded state hospitals did not follow mentally ill individuals to their communities. At least a third of the homeless population is mentally ill -- many with co-occurring substance abuse. "Many people with mental illness -- particularly those who are poor, homeless, or struggling with substance abuse problems -- cannot get mental health treatment. If they commit a crime, even low-level nonviolent offenses, punitive sentencing laws mandate imprisonment."

Open Letters: I Want To Be Healed (part two)

This patient's experience confirms and mirrors mine (albeit mine was from the "therapeutic" side). What do we as a society, we as doctors, do for people who think and act radically different? Can we in good conscience remove these people's rights? Can we in good conscience put them in pharmacological chains because these human beings are more "obedient" that way? mmm.

Toxic Psychiatry, indeed. Jehovah's Witnesses are against receiving blood transfusions. They would rather die. Scientific research caught up to their morality, (the exception rather than the rule--it ususally happens the other way if at all)--JW patients with anemia are given Erythropoeitin, which stimulates red blood cell growth--it's possible to do both. So why can't we do something similar in psychiatry? There's got to be a better way.

Before there were drugs, we warehoused patients. Granted, it was a kind of prison, but these grounds were magnificent, sprawling gardens, lots of room, time to think. But the staff was underpaid, and famously mistreated these patients--see A Clockwork Orange or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not that that's changed much. The staff aren't even nurses anymore--they're often whoever will take the job. Doctors are responsible for hundreds of patients at county mental health facilities...I could go on and on.

What's the solution? We need a radical new treatment system. I'm thinking hard about this. I bet others are too. We will improve mental health treatment and make it humane, come hell or high water.

Here's some tidbits from the letter:

"I KNOW I can cope without medicine. I think anti-psychotic medicine damages just as much as it aids because of all the bad side effects.

"Oona had a lot of electric-shock treatment. Her thoughts are still racing and she is still suffering from depression.

"We thought the nurses weren't handling her right and that all she really needed was someone to talk with her through her confusion.

"I guess they did their best, but at the same time, they seemed so inexperienced when it came to handling her properly.

"I don't need or want to be drugged up for the rest of my life. I want to be healed. I want to cure my schizophrenia. There simply has to be a cure for it. I believe if there is an illness, there is also a cure."

Existentialism: Definitions

An excellent introduction to existentialism. I like this dictionary, it'll help me read the books, which are valuable but sometimes impenetrable.

"Paracelsus opined: 'It is a lame creature who calleth himself a physician and he be void of philosophy and know her not'"

"Hippocrates says that the doctor who is also a philosopher is like unto the gods"
--Viktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul (first quote de-Victorianized for clarity)

Top on the list of books to read is Being and Nothingness by Sartre. If that's too much, (it is for me at the moment) try Viktor Frankl's excellent, and short, Man's Search for Meaning. Other good reads include Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche, which you can find online.

Make no mistake, this philosophy is action-oriented. Carpe diem, don't miss an opportunity, do it now, all of that. Realize your essential worth and show it to others. Be great. Take a risk. These books will instill these ideas.

I think existentialism is valuable personally and professionally becuase it emphasizes freedom. Empowerment is the name of the game here. Nelson Mandela once said, "Man's greatest fear is not of being small, but of being great." So let's "show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle" (Wittgenstein), and give our patients useful encouragement and "behavioral prescriptions", instead of a psychopharmacological addiction and fraudulent happiness.

Ok, some interesting entries from the Dictionary linked above:

Bad Faith - A lie, especially to the self. Self-deception, the paradox of lying to the self, usually in an attempt to escape the responsibility of being an individual. The extreme example cited by existentialists is, “I was only following orders.” Any denial of free will is an example of bad faith. Sartre believed all moments of Bad Faith (Mauvaise Foi) were self-evident, contradicting many psychologists.

Being-in-the-World - Choosing the self as a sentient, real being as manifested by thoughts, actions, and meaning. This is the existential existence, recognizing that at least in humans existence does precede essence. Being-in-the-World is a contrast to Being-in-the-Midst.

Being-in-the-Midst - A form of bad faith in which one chooses the self merely as an inert presence, as a thing. In other words, the treatment of the self as without the ability to change freely.

epoché - The act of suspending interpretation and judgment in order to better study the actual structure and content of an object or phenomena. A term from phenomenology.

existence - The state of being, usually in the material, scientific sense. In existentialism, the existence of a person does not define the individual; the individual is defined by his or her actions and thoughts.

(from NDE) (Latin existere: to stand forth) Existential thinkers write of existence as it is in its factuality as opposed to idealistic philosophy (such as Hegelianism) which equated essence with existence to the detriment of existence. Passion and responsibility are two of the most significatn aspects of existence as viewed by Kierkegaard and Sartre.

And as a final teaser, from the definition of freedom:
Sartre wants men to accept their own absolute responsibility for thier lives. thus he opposes any reliance upon the divine. [Ed. Note: I personally disagree. G-d's existence does not absolve man of any crime, or responsibility: In a place where there are no [wo]men, be a [wo]man. --Pirkey Avot] All of man’s alibis are unacceptable: no gods are responsible for man’s condition, no original sin, no heredity or environment, no race, no caste, no father, no mother, no wrong-headed education, no impulse or disposition, no complex, no childhood trauma. Man is completely free. Man is condemned to be free.

The Body Language Dictionary

I am agog.

"Eureka!"

This well-researched, annoted, free resource will be your guide to almost any encounter. Peruse its contents again and again, there is good stuff here.

Good ones:
Arm-show

Love signals I, II, III, IV, V

Body alignment

Hand-Behind-Head

"A woman may seem to ignore them, but actually reads nonverbal reactions to her movements and gaze. She preens, sweeps her eyes from side to side across a man's line of sight, glances back and forth, and circulates. Her restless to-and-fro bespeaks presence: "I am here."

Mark it well, and return to this site often for more goodies.

--Daniel

TIME: WE WILL BE LEAVING (BY CARPOOL) AT 6:30 P.M. SHARP! THE LECTURE STARTS AT 7:30. PLEASE BE PROMPT, AND ARRIVE AT THE MEETING PLACE EARLY. WE WILL BE BACK BY ABOUT 10 P.M.

MEETING PLACE: RILAND ACADEMIC HEALTH CARE CENTER LOBBY (NYCOM II)

IF YOU MISS US: DIRECTIONS TO NYAM:
BY CAR:
NYAM IS LOCATED ON 5TH AND 103RD STREET
ON THE EAST SIDE OF CENTRAL PARK
TAKE LONG ISLAND EXPRESSWAY TO MIDTOWN TUNNEL—EXIT TO THE RIGHT. TAKE THE LEFT TUNNEL EXIT STREET TO 34TH ST., TURN LEFT (EAST); GET ON FDR DRIVE NORTH.

FROM THE FDR DRIVE NORTH, TAKE THE 96TH STREET EXIT. TURN LEFT ONTO 96TH STREET, AND DRIVE STRAIGHT UNTIL MADISON AVENUE. TURN RIGHT ON MADISON, AND DRIVE NORTH TO 103RD STREET. TURN LEFT, AND THE ACADEMY IS AT THE END OF THE BLOCK ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE STREET.
A PARKING GARAGE IS LOCATED AT 105TH STREET AND MADISON
BY SUBWAY:
TAKE THE #6 LOCAL TRAIN TO 103RD STREET. WALK WEST ON 103RD STREET; AFTER CROSSING PARK AVENUE, TURN RIGHT AND WALK A FEW YARDS, AND THEN TURN LEFT ONTO THE PATH THROUGH THE GARDEN OF CARVER HOUSES TO MADISON AVENUE. CONTINUE WEST ON 103RD STREET ALMOST TO FIFTH AVENUE. THE ENTRANCE TO THE ACADEMY IS ON 103RD STREET.

See you there!

--Daniel Dexeus,
President, Psychiatry Club.
Call me if you need assistance:
(516)313-2797

NYAM - Events

TEACHING PSYCHOTHERAPY: A SUPERVISORY UPDATE
The Stuart. S. Asch, MD Memorial Symposium

Sponsored by NYAM Section of Psychiatry

For more information and program topics, please contact Donald Morcone (212) 822-7272, dmorcone@nyam.org
--But if you want to go to this event, email me, Daniel Dexeus; see under contacts

Wednesday
Nov. 12th
6 p.m.- 6:30
Reception
6:30 p.m - 7:30 p.m.
Dinner
7:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Lecture

We will be leaving on Wenesday, Nov 12 @ about 7:30, in carpools. We were invited to go to this by Dr. Borenstein, the Medical Director of Holliswood psychiatric Hospital in Brooklyn.

The second event is...RAGING BULL!


November 14, 2003
5:30p Buffet Dinner
6:30p Raging Bull
8:30p Bennett Roth presents: "Violence and Virility in the Ring"

Dr. Roth is a training analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. We were invited to go to this event by Dr. Goldberg, the head of Psychiatry here at NYCOM. He also works at Maimonides, I think as Director of Residency training.

For this we will be leaving about 4:30 from the NYCOM parking lot, again in carpools.

Hope to see you at one or both of these excellent events!

Chinese mental patient images aka 'the chain gang"

These were taken in 1998!!!

Some of my favorites:

silly and grumpy

yes you forgot to apply deodorant

silly and grumpy part 2

I really gotta go!!

I just went *grin*

patient /therapist

I'm a very good listener

via Boing Boing

PCBE: Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (Happy Souls)


Wow, what a find!

Here's a government site that has some excellent articles and this one in particular, Beyond therapy, is well written and poignant. It's quite long, though. I expect to blog extensively on material from this site.

Here are some choice tidbits:
"By directly inducing changes in our subjective experience, the new psychotropic drugs create the possibility of severing the link between feelings of happiness and our actions and experiences in the world. . Who would need better children, superior performance, or more youthful bodies if medication could provide the pleasure and sense of well-being that is the goal of so many of our aspirations? Indeed, why would one need to discipline one’s passions, refine one’s sentiments, and cultivate one’s virtues, in short, to organize one’s soul for action in the world, when one’s aspiration to happiness could be satisfied by drugs in a quick, consistent, and cost-effective manner?"

"How will we experience our incompleteness or understand our mortality as our ability grows to medically dissolve all sorts of anxiety?"

"Formally speaking, one might suggest that happiness consists in a coincidence between one’s desires and one’s power to satisfy them. But, as the well-known rejoinder has it, desires come in all sizes: Is it better to be a pig satisfied or Socrates dissatisfied?"

"But seldom do those who win by cheating or who love by deceiving cease to long for the joy and fulfillment that come from winning fair and square or being loved for who one truly is. Many stoop to fraud to obtain happiness, but none want their feeling of flourishing itself to be fraudulent. Yet a fraudulent happiness is just what the pharmacological management of our mental lives threatens to confer upon us."

"Anticipating the ethical analyses that come later in this chapter, we identify a two-fold threat of fraudulent happiness. First, an unchecked power to erase memories, brighten moods, and alter our emotional dispositions could imperil our capacity to form a strong and coherent personal identity. To the extent that our inner life ceases to reflect the ups and downs of daily existence and instead operates independently of them, we dissipate our identity, which is formed through engagement with others and through immersion in the mix of routine and unpredictable events that constitute our lives."

"Instead of recognizing distress, anxiety, and sorrow as appropriate reflections of the fragility of human life and inseparable from the setbacks and heartbreaks that accompany the pursuit of happiness and the love of fellow mortals, we are invited to treat them as diseases to be cured, perhaps one day eradicated."

"To be sure, our emotions can play cruel tricks on us and fail us in myriad ways. They often wax and wane without reason, and they are not in themselves given to maintaining proper measure. And for those afflicted by debilitating memories of traumatic events, or who chronically suffer depression, despair, or a sense of deep unworthiness, the new drugs are likely to prove a great boon, by repairing crucial capacities for a normal and fitting emotional life."

"Nevertheless, it behooves us to explore the potential uses and misuses of these new drugs carefully, for drugs that erase memories or alter our temperaments and emotional outlooks deal with that which is most us, our hearts and minds."

Via Abyssal Mind