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.

THE MAN WITH A MICROPHONE IN HIS EAR, by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, Self Examination, Writing

My sincere thanks to everyone for helping Chasing Backwards have a successful debut.

I’d now like to introduce my new novella, The Man with a Microphone in his Ear.

It is July, 1969 at PGH (Philadelphia General Hospital), an ancient psychiatric fortress. Enter the world of psychiatry through the eyes of a 1st year psychiatric resident on his first day of training on the locked inpatient unit.

A psychotic, paranoid man smashes a piano stool, and using the legs as bludgeoning propellers, tries to attack everyone in his path. He is eventually controlled and placed in leather restraints.

The next day, much to the horror of the clueless resident, this dangerous man becomes his first patient. Learning about Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorders and Paranoid States is the easy part. Overcoming his own fear and how to talk to a psychotic person is something that he’ll never forget and will shape his entire psychiatric career.

The Man with a Microphone in his Ear is available for all eBooks.

Sincerely,

Art Smukler

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WHY IS A STONE KILLER SO INTERESTING? by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Psychiatry, World events, a psychological view, Writing

I’m talking about the one with dead eyes who blows someone’s head off, then opens the fridge, finishes off the last piece of apple pie, and carefully brushes away the crumbs with a clean hanky.

How can someone do that? Wouldn’t he be shaking or vomiting, filled with guilt and anguish at the fact he’s taken another’s life? That would be nice, but then that would make him human. A stone killer has no conscience. If you have no conscience you can strangle puppies to death, steal from elderly women, or torture innocent people. Having a reasonable discussion with this type of pseudo-human sociopath is a waste of time. Spending thousands to rehab him is also a waste of resources.

So why do we find him so interesting? Because he does exactly what he wants. We struggle with right or wrong, whether we’ll hurt someone’s feelings, or whether what we’re doing is honorable. Our code of ethics runs deep. His only code is to not get caught.

On the good side, stone killers can be fun. It’s fun to get revenge without guilt or remorse, to read a murder mystery and give our overactive consciences a rest. Crawl into bed, relax into a comfortable state of anxiety, because in the end, the good guy will get the bad guy and we’ll all be saved.

Any thoughts on good versus evil?

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