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.

WHAT DO BARACK OBAMA, JOHN STEWART, MICHAEL CONNELLY, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, JOE PATERNO, JOHN GRISHAM, SETH GODIN, MAGIC JOHNSON, MARK CUBAN, AND STEVEN SPIELBERG HAVE IN COMMON? by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Self Examination, Uncategorized, Writing

What they have in common is exactly what I don’t have, name recognition.

I wondered what would happen if, as an experiment, I listed famous people (who I’m interested in) and how that would reflect on my blog. Would some subscribers unsubscribe? Would I get more subscribers? Would people buy my books? Would they burn and erase them? Would nothing out of the ordinary happen?

As Seth Godin wrote, if  you don’t take risks, probably your goals won’t be achieved.

While you’re here, even though you didn’t know you were actually going to visit, please check out the posts on Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist. Some may be of interest, some may be helpful, but all were written to share what my views are regarding the world, the mind, therapy, and the human condition.

Also, please come back and visit. I’ll let you know how my experiment turned out.

HOW HARD IS IT TO RESIST A SOCIOPATH? by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Self Examination, Writing

A dozen years ago, a physician I knew was reported to the medical board by the hospital ethics committee. He was practicing extremely shoddy medicine and exorbitantly overcharging patients.

What continues to amaze me is my reaction to him. Knowing all that I did, I found his behavior disgusting, and was happy that he was publicly exposed. Yet, when I ran into him at a coffee shop, and he started chatting about some inconsequential, neutral subject, I couldn’t help but like him. I tried to keep in mind that he was a sleaze, but in spite of it, I couldn’t help but laugh at some of his humorous observations about life, and was inexorably drawn into his bright, witty world.

Some sociopaths are irresistible. The doctor I’m talking about would have made a fortune selling snake oil from the back of a Conestoga Wagon.

So what do you do when confronted by one of these conscienceless manipulators? Don’t listen to your feelings (right brain), but only listen to the logical part of your mind (left brain). If you listen to your feelings, you’ll wind up with a useless case of snake oil.

Remember, with sociopaths, left brain always trumps right brain!

Any personal experiences?

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