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.

TRUNK HUSTLER, by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Writing

I just read an excellent book excerpt, LUCKY ME, by Rich Paul, LeBron James’ agent. Paul was reselling high-end jerseys and athletic shoes from the trunk of his car when he met LeBron. The result of that chance meeting benefited both of their lives.

What impressed me was how Paul actually made his own luck. He was brilliant, creative, a risk-taker, and an extremely hard worker. Of course the meeting with LeBron was serendipitous, but Paul’s work-ethic and natural creativity attracted LeBron. It would have attracted anyone.

It also brought to mind my college years when I spent two summers driving up and down the east coast selling battery cables and ignition wire sets to gas stations. Now in the age of electric vehicles, no one needs wire sets and battery cables because they don’t exist on electric cars. Nevertheless, back in the sixties, they were hot items.

Lucky for me, my dad had a very small wire company and he sold me the merchandise at his cost. I’d go from station to station, encourage the owner to walk out to my old Plymouth convertible, open the trunk, and give him a deal he couldn’t refuse. 20% off if he bought a dozen or more cables or wire sets. I’d stay overnight in cheap motels and keep going till my trunk was empty. Then I’d drive back to Philly, reload, and do it all again.

I remember those early years with fondness. I loved cars and I still love them. I loved hanging out with guys who worked on them. I loved driving up through the small Jersey beach towns with my top down, looking for my next sale. I’d stop for lunch at a roadside place for a burger, or a shake, or just about anything. In the evenings I’d meet kids my age, have a few beers, sometimes when I was lucky a pretty girl, and look forward to my next day and my next adventure.

If there were a way to load up the trunk of my car with LITTLE ITALY and PATIENT X and hit the road I’d do it in a second. 20% off if you buy a dozen or more! What a deal!

Thanks for reading. Art

#mystery, #romance, #suspense, #psychiatrist, #Richpaul, #LeBron, #LITTLEITALY, #author, #PATIENTX,

DAM IT! by ART SMUKLER, MD, AUTHOR AND PSYCHIATRIST

by artsmuklermd, posted in Writing

I just read in the LA TIMES that the first of four dams on the West’s Klamath River was destroyed. By the end of 2024 all four will be gone from the California-Oregon border and the massive runs of salmon and steelhead along 400 miles of waterway will be restored. In fact, more than 1600 American dams have been removed since 1912, from California to Connecticut.

So what? you might be thinking. Why is a retired shrink writing about dams? Well, I was lying on the couch in my living room, obviously not the psychiatric one in my former office, when I got really angry. Damn it! How many mistakes have our elected officials made that created chaos and misery?

In LA in the forties and fifties and sixties, it was cheaper to use buses than the existing trolley cars. It would have cost tons of money to upgrade the old rail system. The politicians didn’t have the foresight to predict that an investment in what we already had would be wise. Now we’re playing catch-up with all the other major cities in the world and spending many billions to build a subway and extend a light-rail system.

How about The Community Mental Health debacle? In the sixties, the pitch was that we’d save billions by closing state hospitals, and the mentally ill wouldn’t have to live in the disgusting state hospitals that looked and felt like prisons. I was a great advocate of the new system. In fact, when I started my psychiatric practice near Philly, I worked in a mental health center. It was wonderful. We did home visits and saw the same people who had been locked up in Byberry State Hospital and Philadelphia General Hospital in a homey, pleasant atmosphere. Then the politicians decided to use the mental health money for dozens of other things. Mental health centers closed and the mentally ill became street people, living in tents, urinating and defecating where they lived, and attacking people when voices told them to defend themselves. Predictable? Of course.

Think of the myriad of other mistakes our country made: the Viet Nam War, invading Iraq after 911, being addicted to fossil fuel, allowing everyone to own and carry firearms, the red scare in the sixties and on and on.

Don’t dam it, until someone with perspective examines it. We all need to look beneath the obvious and not blindly follow our leaders.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to check out my new books, PATIENT X and LITTLE ITALY. Best Wishes, Art

#authorandpsychiatrist #Damit #PATIENTX #LITTLE ITALY #CommunityMental Health