“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
A solution to an unnecessarily fatal condition. A number of years ago I developed a leiomyosarcoma, which is an unusual form of abdominal cancer. Although I had previously been a health worrier, I was too caught up during the next number of days dealing with the very...
The doctrine of “assumption of risk.” Everyone agrees there is too much litigation, except for a few malcontents and trial lawyers; and who cares what they think anyway? People sue when doctors operate on the wrong limb or when a pothole has been neglected so that the...
I was first read an example of hate mail by a college professor of mine who had received such a letter earlier that day. We were eating dinner at the time along with a few other students. The professor was a good-natured gentleman of middle-age, dressed conservatively...
“Bloody Kansas” Kansas is considering a new law which will allow parents (or someone they designate) to strike their children up to ten times, even if the result is bruising. The previous law governing child abuse was considered too vague. It seemed possible...
A problem for psychotherapy. It is well-documented that people’s memories are fallible; their perceptions are unreliable; and their view of the world—no matter how strongly believed—may well be contrary to the facts, even contrary to physical law. All of these aspects...
Cruel and/or unusual punishment The following is an excerpt from a speech I would have given to the “True Independence Day Club” on July 3, 1996 if they had asked me. “Thank you for asking me here today, a special day in our history: the two hundredth and twentieth...
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...
Listening to the political conventions, I am reminded of something Abraham Lincoln was supposed to have said:You can fool some of the people all the time.And you can fool all of the people some of the time.But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.But...