In the latter part of the 20th century a dramatic shift occurred regarding the manner in which psychiatrists and other mental health professionals described and diagnosed psychological problems. DSM I, the first version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, was a modest size paperback handbook providing broad categories of mental health problems. It was the […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Not that I am such a rabid reader of The New Yorker magazine, but in the past several weeks their cartoonists have outdone themselves in relevance to AMHF. At this writing, the “Wizard of Oz” group-session caption has not been selected. It ought to be final by Labor Day. But the August 25 and September […]
By: Evander LomkeThis week, we have the three finalists among caption-writers in The New Yorker Cartoon Capton Contest. “And my hourly fee is six hundred dollars. You’re not in Kansas anymore.” “If you adopt her, please understand that she comes with a lot of baggage.” “Home–is there really no place like it? Who’d like to start?” All […]
By: Evander LomkeIn the 1990s a new specialty area emerged in psychiatry—Geriatric Psychiatry. Mental health problems in older persons can be effectively treated. In the New York City area, the Weill Cornell Medical College offers research and clinical services. To learn more about help that is available, click here.
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.The New York Times on Tuesday August 12th offers an article describing the problems faced by parents with special needs children when it comes to finding “sitters” or “helpers”. They even report on a national service that can match parents with caretakers. When one imagines the difficulty encountered just in finding a sitter for a […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Individuals with Special Needs as well as The Elderly…too often, our society wants us to forget they exist. How much easier it is to turn our heads and pretend that we just don’t see. “What you do to the least of mine, you also do to me.” One of the goals of “The New American […]
By: Evander LomkeDr. David Crenshaw is one of the leading experts on psychotherapy with children and we are grateful to him for writing this for our blog: Aggressive Children have too many Tears Buried Inside David Crenshaw, Ph.D., ABPP The profound losses of those born and raised in extreme poverty; urban youth who grow up in dangerous […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Several years ago New York State added new mental health positions that are licensable in New York State. Among these were licenses in psychoanalysis, mental health counseling, and marriage and family counseling. All of these require the minimum of a master’s degree and certain kinds of supervised experience. Previously the major licensed/certified positions were for […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.Psyche, everyone knows, is a word from the ancient Greek. It means Soul. The work of psychoanalysis is, first, to understand the reasons we feel and act a certain way. Second, to help the distressed, the stressed-out, the depressed. By any objective measure, the human lifespan is short. Yet for many, the timespan of a […]
By: Evander LomkeThe article about Dr. Karasu about the Very Rich in psychotherapy noted that young persons born into Very Wealthy families “are so often narcissistic in a way that excludes depression.” This made me stop to think about the many people from history where we think there is suggestion of depression or some kind of mental […]
By: William Van Ornum, Ph.D.
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