Author: artsmuklermd

Art Smukler, MD was born and raised in Philadelphia, went to college and medical school in Pennsylvania, and completed his psychiatric training at UCLA. He is a board-certified psychiatrist, specializing in the treatment of adults with a subspecialty in adolescents. As a member of the UCLA faculty, he ran an award-winning psychotherapy conference for psychiatric residents and received the coveted “Golden Ear” award. He has published in psychiatric journals, and won the award for excellence in creative writing at The Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Now a full-time author, he applies his deep understanding of the human psyche to the motivations of his fictional characters.

WELCOME TO THE CHAIN GANG, by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Self Examination, Uncle Bill's Place, Writing

The term “Chain Gang” brings to mind an image of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. Bare-chested, sweat dripping down his forehead, he swings a pickaxe as guards with dead eyes and no sense of humor stand ready with their shotguns cocked and loaded. Summer in Mississippi is not pleasant.

How about another image? Picture a 15-year-old student in a cold basement, shadows projected on the hard cement floor from mufflers hanging from the ceiling, sweating as he crimps together long rows of chain with connector links. After he completes two rows of chains, he places the chains in sturdy cardboard boxes labeled snow chains, and then does it all again, all day. His knees burn, his back aches, and his mind is on a different planet. It’s storming outside, and upstairs in the store, there’s a run on chains. In the background a deep baritone sings Old man River, but only in the mind of the 15-year-old. December in Philadelphia is not pleasant.

Yeah, it was tough down there in the basement of GI Joe’s Auto Accessory store, my uncle’s business. It would be nice, as an author, to extol the virtues of how I overcame torture and abuse to become the man I am today. Sadly, my uncle didn’t provide any torture or abuse. He was one of the sweetest men I’ve ever known. He gave me the opportunity to make money, bought us all lunch, and treated every employee with respect and dignity.

So what did he give me besides a person to respect and emulate? He gave me the chance to dream. Down there in the dark basement filled with cobwebs and dust, I survived the unpleasant hours with an active fantasy life — the dark-haired girl with the ponytail who maybe glanced at me for an extra second, the Chevy Impala with white-wall tires and dual exhaust pipes, and the smile on Doctor K’s face when I asked him how the heart worked. For two bucks an hour, I learned how to do something I hated, to never give up, and to grudgingly feel a sense of accomplishment. To achieve anything in life, we have to learn to do things that are distasteful.

The fantasies of our youth are the foundation of our stories and who we eventually become. Are children today being given the opportunity to dream? Is there any time left between, iPads, computers, organized sports, TV and play dates? Do they have anytime to actually figure out who they are?

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RESULTS OF THE OBAMA-SPIELBERG EXPERIMENT, by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Writing

Last week, I used 10 well-known celebrities in my post title. These ranged from Barack Obama to Mark Cuban to Steven Spielberg. My theory was that Google would connect anyone with an interest in these personalities to my blog site.

I imagined millions of potential viewers, with thousands of my books lining their shelves.

It didn’t happen — not even close. I’ve published 50 posts and have a total of 9000 hits, an average of 180 hits per post. For this experiment I received a grand total of…(drum roll) 190 hits. 8 new people decided to follow my blog and 7 people downloaded books. Fame and riches did not rain down upon me.

What does it all mean? To me, it means that post readers are interested in actual content — subjects that matter to them and people who have something to say. Just listing famous people doesn’t do it. Also, for someone to buy an unknown person’s book, there needs to be some sort of  emotional connection or a recommendation from someone that they respect.

There’s no easy way to become known throughout the internet and throughout the world if you haven’t earned it. And really, that’s the way it should be.

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