“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
There was a time when I served as a psychiatric consultant to a television program called “The Baby Game,” in which crawling babies competed with each other to be the first to reach their mothers who were jumping up and down at the other end of a rug. They also...
A strategy for coping. As in any other kind of human interaction, all kinds of things can go wrong during the dating process. Someone met for the first time can turn out to be any sort of person: an imposter, philanderer, criminal, bigamist, homicidal maniac, etc. The...
A guide for bigots. Homosexuality is in the news a lot these days, what with homosexuals getting married and homosexuals serving in the armed forces and homosexuals forming their own soft-ball leagues. Societal attitudes towards homosexuality are changing. It is no...
An unhealthy entertainment. In an issue of Surgical Endoscopy (1997) there was a report of an interesting surgical method of extracting swallowed toothbrushes. (Since they are never passed spontaneously, they must be removed one way or another surgically.) The...
Irony The Central Club of New York City came into existence in the late 19th century as a refuge for like-minded individuals intent on distinguishing themselves from people of lesser quality and financial worth, and to compensate them for having themselves been...
More psychic adventures in my family. In this week’s Skeptical Inquirer (Vol.37 No.3) there is a report of an archeologist suing the makers of the Indiana Jones movies for a piece of their profits because their movie, the plaintiffs claimed, is based on a...
Storytelling He was a tall, gangly man with an electric style of walking: sudden, large, bouncing steps, an occasional shuffle and a tendency to lurch from side to side. He used the wooden stick he carried to steady himself occasionally, but, more often, to point out...
When people cry, it is for a good reason. Start off with an idea that may seem controversial: whenever someone cries, it is because that person is sad—usually because of an impending loss or a remembered loss Most of the time it is obvious why someone cries: something...
The particular incident I want to tell about took place in the first month of my psychiatric residency, a very long time ago. But in order to make my reaction understandable, I have to go back even further, to the time when I was in college. I developed a panic...
A colleague complained to me a few days ago about his office. He was troubled by plumbing that was making some gurgling noises and by the sounds of construction from outside the window. I cheered him up by telling him about the time I had The Worst Office in the...
The following is a true story, but the people have been disguised. As a psychiatrist, I spend much of my time talking to people who have been disillusioned and disenchanted by unhappy relationships. I ask them, and everyone else, for that matter, what attracted...
Why boasting is unpleasant I had a memorable experience a number of years ago. I ran into an acquaintance of mine who was standing on a street corner waiting for a red light to change. I had not seen him since I had graduated college ten years before. “Hey, Walter,” I...