Recent Updates
Harvest Lust
Harvest lust—what is it? You know how it is when you go to an orchard to pick your own apples. The trees are heavy with fruit and the air smells sooo sweet from the apples and you take a bite of one and it’s delicious and you lose your mind and pick waaaayyy more than you intended. That’s u-pick lust. Harvest lust is u-pick lust on steroids.
Every fall, harvest lust grabs me because
Beyond Thrilled to Announce I Have a Book Deal with W. W. Norton
I have a book deal! With W.W. Norton! For an academic book!
That’s amazing all by itself given I’m a rural shrink toiling in the back forty of upstate New York untethered from academia. But here’s what totally blows my mind.
Look Out! I'm a National Award Winner!
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists: Organization for writers of serial essay, including columnists and bloggers, in any medium awarded me a third place in the General Interest: Online category of their 2022 contest. I am so delighted!
When I submitted two 2021 posts from this blog, I wasn’t fully aware of the level of competition.
How to Live with Imposter Syndrome
According to Google, Imposter Syndrome is “loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high achieving people who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments.” Is this you? Me too. The wordsmith who coined the term probably did so ironically. Though, as a shrink, I would include the syndrome as a legitimate diagnosis in the DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It’s real, with real consequences.
Slayer of Dragons
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Why not perpetrate some shameless self-promotion? My book Practice, Practice, Practice: This Psychiatrist’s Life will make you aware of the view from my side side of the couch. Spoiler Alert—the following YouTube video, a seven minute speech which I gave at my local Toastmaster’s club, is based on one chapter from the book.
Twice is Enough
The door from the garage into the house was locked. We hadn’t had a key to this door for years. Don’t ask. Which is why we never turned the little thingie on the inside knob to the locked position. How had that happened? I shook the doorknob again. No luck.
I looked at Son, aged nine, beside me.
Confessions of a Perfectionist in Recovery
My mother, a perfectionist, believes perfection is excellence. And—this is important—if you’re not suffering, you’re slacking. For my growing up and training years, I bought that. But aging and real life—taking care of patients, writing, cooking, parenting—have taught me to pursue excellence instead.
What I Learned from Giving my Ice Breaker Speech to my Local Toastmasters Club
Finally, after practicing for days giving my speech from memory—before my friend Joan; between clients; while on hold as my tech genius figured out what was wrong with my office computer; at home cooking dinner and after, doing the dishes; as I applied lipstick in the rearview mirror, and drove to the public library where the Toastmasters meeting was happening—finally, I was standing before the camera (it was a hybrid meeting) and my fellow Toastmasters, ready (as I’d ever be) to give my speech.
Mery X'mas!
I wrote this piece years ago, when Donald Westlake was my favorite author. (Today, he is one of my favorites.) I admit that reposting it now carries a whiff of nostalgia—COVID has changed my shopping habits. I shop less, and go during off hours so as to spend the least time with the most social distance. That protects my health, of course. But it sacrifices the fun of eavesdropping. I miss that.
Enjoy this brief hop back to a COVID-free holiday season, and the excerpt from one of Westlake’s best, Bad News, featuring Dortmunder, and the regulars at the OJ.
Holiday Family Gatherings a Contributing Factor to Yearly Flu Epidemic, Study Reports
Every competent physician regularly reads the professional literature to keep abreast of the latest research. Also, to accumulate the mandated 30 CME’s (Continuing Medical Education credits) a year to stay licensed.
This excerpt from my memoir, Practice, Practice, Practice: This Psychiatrist’s Life is one such study—if that’s what it is. The research was done well before COVID, but the findings are robust enough, Dr. Fauci says, that they apply to any viral assault, including the current pandemic.
Yes, this is such an insanely useful study—your world will be rocked. Guaranteed. Call me Santa. You’re welcome. By the way, the book makes a great gift. (hint hint) Get vaxxed. Stay masked. Happy holidays!
Holiday Family Gatherings a Contributing Factor to Yearly Winter Flu Epidemic, Study Reports
By D. Essem
December, DweebMD, Internet Medical News. A landmark study published last month in the esteemed science journal Family Hell asserts that holiday revelry with relatives “is so stressful to the immune system, it collapses like a building seeded with dynamite,” says I. M. Trapt, M.D., primary researcher and family member.
“Extensive research has already concluded
Book Review: Becoming Duchess Goldblatt: A Memoir, by Anonymous
This is one of the best books I’ve read, ever. It’s simply beautiful, a work of art that transcends its genre. The author’s journey exemplifies cartoonist and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Lynda Barry’s contention that “We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality. We create it to be able to stay.”
How does the author keep going when she loses everything that makes her life meaningful and worth living?
Outing Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” and/or How To Host an Enjoyable Thanksgiving Feast
I look at this iconic painting of the iconic white American family sitting at table celebrating that most American of holidays, Thanksgiving—Ma at the head, eye drawn to the huge roasted turkey on an oval platter that she’s bending to place on the table; Pa, black-suited, standing behind, not helping her—and think to myself: only a man could have painted this image, a man who never once hosted a large gathering; or roasted, carved and served a whole turkey.
How do I know? I have roasted, carved and served many whole turkeys over the years—the largest, a twenty-one pounder— and let me tell you: it’s not possible to quickly and neatly slice that baby at table surrounded by impatient, salivating loved ones.