Some questions for conversation in the chat and discussion:

Dr. Oepen identified his favorite thinker in the field as Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist. What do you think about his choice?

The worst idea in psychiatry was the ideas of blaming the mother for mental conditions. Many clinicians, especially trained in the Freudian tradition, still tend to blame parents for the problems of their clients. Why? Is this acceptable?

Dr. Oepen’s family suffered from the Nazi regime, and resisted it. Yet he was blamed by some people throughout his life for being German. Discrimination occurs in people where we might not realize it is occuring, such as in his case, a person outsiders might simply see as a priviliged white male. How does this observation affect many of our assumptions today about discrimination?

An important psychiatric teacher in his life was Dr. Rudolf Degkwitz? Who was he? Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Degkwitz

And he mentioned Dr. Kurt Goldstein, as an important influence. Who was he? Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Goldstein

About a year ago, I got to know General Gregg Martin. A decorated combat leader from the Iraq war, he had been forced to resign as president of the National Defense University about a decade ago, because of a severe manic episode. Up to then, he had a decades-long career as a successful military leader. His manic episode was followed by severe psychotic depression, psychiatric hospitalization, mistreatment with multiple antidepressants, and eventual full recovery on lithium. About a decade later, he’s telling his story in his new memoir, and on this podcast.

Listen to his incredible experience.

Buy Bipolar General here

An excellent gift just in time for the holidays!

Ketamine and psychedelics are getting a lot of hype, but they won't live up to it. This episode explains why, the main reason being that these treatments are just symptomatic, like tylenol or aspirin, and not disease-modifying. They thus don't have long-term benefits. They are like super-tylenol, which is not transformative for psychiatry.