“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
But you can’t be just anybody. It is often said to someone who is anxious to make a good impression, “just be yourself.” What that means is, “I think you are fine. You do not have to pretend to be someone else.” This is often helpful and appropriate advice....
Just as some people are shy and others brash, some people are easily embarrassed by circumstances that would not trouble anyone else. They have an exaggerated concern about the impression they are making. It is a sensitivity that underlies a number of the anxiety...
California’s law against “gay conversion therapy” California recently passed a law against therapies designed to assist young people to give up their homosexuality. A federal court has just decided that the law does not violate constitutional provisions guaranteeing...
A long time ago, I was walking with two other medical students across town to a restaurant. I was doing the sort of thing I did when I walked: I sort of knocked against things with the side of my hand. I would give a little sideways punch to a lamppost or a railing or...
HomosexualityThere are a number of sensible questions one can ask about the subject of homosexuality, and some that are not sensible. A fundamental, sensible question is “Why are some people homosexual and others heterosexual?” Some other questions that grow out of...
The Cyclops ChildProbably every physician can think of one patient who affected him more than any other. The patient who has haunted me through the years was a child that I saw for only a little time at the very beginning of my career. I was an intern at a Catholic...
Attitudes towards abortion have not changed significantly since the landmark Supreme Court ruling declaring a constitutional right to an abortion. Some people still feel there is no justification ever for abortion, which they regard as the killing of another human...