AFTER LISA: Prologue and 1st 2 chapters of a novel blasting HMOs

Based on a true story Prologue Each year with the coming of autumn, on the third Friday of October, the Journalist’s Guild announces the winner of the George W. Hitchcock Prize for Investigative Journalism at its annual ceremonial dinner. For the last 30 years it has been held in the Clarkson Ballroom of the Vanderbilt …

Carol’s Funeral: Chapter 26 from 1968 Changed Everything

Chapter 26 Goodbye Solemnly the rabbi delivers a message Jeremy has heard at every funeral he has gone to. “From dirt we came and to dirt we return.” The word dirt throws him into a rage Dirt? Dirt? Why didn’t he say we return to the earth. Even dust would be better. Jeremy is in a …

Balance

Chapter 13 With the composure that sex between two people in love brings, Jeremy and CC lie naked in bed. She’s still holding him tightly. If she could, she would pull the rest of him inside her. He senses her remaining desire. It thrills him. All his life, he’s imagined entering a heaven like this, …

TRUE True true LOVE (from 1968 Changed Everything)

Chapter 21 Ira and Evelyn’s Marriage While Jeremy had assumed that buying CC the wonderful ring and sharing the room over Niagara Falls earned him their best lovemaking yet, CC is not there at all. She wants to talk. Nothing else. Talk. He has no choice. If he must, he must—but not happily. Jeremy lights …

Ending Insurance Companies’ Control of Mental Health Care.

My retirement from psychiatry has allowed independence from fears that caused temperance in my opinions about issues, which all along deserved a passionate campaign for change. This is an article about the stranglehold that insurance companies have had on health care, particularly mental health care, for more than 20 years. I have been retired for …

People Are Living Like They Might Be Dead Tomorrow

             Covid did a number. I’m not talking about suicides or drug abuse or other much publicized ways the epidemic left its mark. None of that is insignificant. But, it is worth turning our attention to more widespread effects, those evident in the way a broad spectrum of people are reacting to the plague that …

A Plea for Balance: The Situation In the Ukraine is Far More Complicated Than We are Being Told

  Whatever the cause, wars’ consequences are the worst behavior human beings are capable of displaying. It’s always the same, rape, pillage, maiming and human beings killing other human beings on a massive scale.  War makes clear that we are animals once the restraints of civilized expectations are removed.  However noble the intentions claimed, however interesting …

The Myth of Scientific Psychiatry

It is not surprising that American psychiatry embraced science during the last half century. Before that Freud’s ideas and those of his critics dominated the field. While some of their ideas had the ring of truth, and many fine observations were made, the one thing they were not was scientific. Their methodology was not the …

True Love

  Chapter 6 And so Jeremy and CC are no more. CC is home for spring break. The plan is a weekend in Great Neck and then off to California to spend time with Mark. CC has had a thousand thoughts and reflections about her affair with Jeremy, but, in truth, she hasn’t missed him …

Spartacus and Death (from 1968 Changed Everything)

Chapter 2 Spartacus   While Dr. Weiss has been unhappy that Jeremy is cheating on Carol, she is not taken aback. Carol’s the best thing in his life, but he’s demonstrated his lousy judgment again and again. His high IQ does a very bad job of handling the equally large stupid part of him. As …

1968 Changed Everything. The beginning of the novel

    Chapter 1 October 1968  Towering elms line the wide pathways crisscrossing the University of Buffalo’s campus: autumnal reds, vibrant oranges, translucent yellows all set against a brilliant blue sky. The wind whips up, happily swirling the colorful leaves with each gust. Students hurry in every direction. The commotion of the students arriving in their lecture halls is soon replaced …

It’s Not Complicated

It’s Not Complicated I had other things to do yesterday, but I got this email saying that T Mobile wanted to pay for a year of Paramount Plus, a streaming channel that was once new to me.   Last week I had watched a terrific series on Paramount, 1883.  Why not, I decided. So I googled how …

Passover 1963 from “1968 Changed Everything”

Mark is home from college for spring break. His uncles, Ira’s brothers, Lester and Herbert Gordon, his aunts, Irene and Anne, and their five children are at the table.  Everyone is dressed up for the holiday, suits and ties and special dresses bought for the occasion. The men wear yarmulkes. In contrast, Mark is wearing …

Balancing Work and Leisure: The New Equilibrium

  Lately I have been hearing a lot of talk about people reassessing their lives. Juliette Lewis put it succinctly. “Only recently, I was like, life-work balance? That’s an amazing concept.  I didn’t even know there was a name for it.  I thought it was just like, work your ass off until you crash and …

Chapter 4: Jeremy tells Dave about his new love

Jeremy approaches Dave Miller’s office.  They’ve known each other since the fourth grade. Their relationship has been up and down since then, but during the last several years, being in the same graduate program has turned them into pals.  Both teach literature courses, but even when they are covering the same material, they couldn’t be …

1968 Changed Everything: A Novel: CC’s fears abut her parents’ marriage

Chapter 21 Ira and Evelyn’s Marriage   While Jeremy had assumed that buying CC the wonderful ring and sharing the room over Niagara Falls earned him serious lovemaking, CC is not there at all.  She wants to talk. That’s it.  Nothing else. Talk. He has no choice. If he must he must, but not happily. Jeremy …

Don’t Underestimate Fear

The biggest mistake an analyst can make is to overestimate the importance of reason in their analysis of why people do crazy things, or have crazy thoughts .  Certainly reason plays a part, sometimes an important part.  But fear is often overlooked or played down as an ingredient. And fear explains most of it We …

What is an Expert?

During the Covid crisis experts have been quoted again and again and again as a central part of the discussion. Their advice and predictions have often been inconsistent or wrong but that has not stopped them from being an essential part of any commentary by journalists and politicians. It’s made me wonder exactly what we …