Category: Politics

I’m Back From The World Of Denial, Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in MY NOVELS, Politics, Psychiatry, Psychological suspense novels, Self Examination, World events, a psychological view

I was driving home from the mall with my wife, enjoying how my Tesla handled, how it could park itself, automatically turn the headlights on and off when needed, beep when the traffic light changed, hug the road beautifully, when an awful thought jammed its way into my consciousness. Elon Musk, Trump’s bestie, was the guy who made this miracle car happen. He is also part of the White House duo who is instrumental in ripping apart our now obviously fragile democracy. He’s behaving exactly like he did when he purchased Twitter for over 40 Billion dollars, with mass firings and a “who gives a shit” attitude.

One day Trump says that the Ukraine started the war with Russia, a few days later he changes his mind. Congress has been useless. The judiciary, many judges appointed by Trump, is lackluster at best.

What to do?

Is there an answer?

We need a superhero with ethics!

What would Joe Belmont, my first hero, in my first novel, Little Italy, do?

Easy.

He’d sell the Tesla, buy a classic Mustang convertible, find a way to save our democracy and extricate us from the narcissistic duo, and live happily ever after with the love of his life.

So what can I do? What can we do?

Not sure yet.

Back to writing the truth is a beginning.

Thanks,

Art

#LittleItaly, #psychiatrist, #Smukler, #Trump, #Musk

Homelessness. What to Do? by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Politics, Psychiatry, Self Examination, World events, a psychological view

Who said, “There is nothing compassionate about letting individuals live in filth and squalor, rather than getting them the help they need?”

Donald Trump and Art Smukler…

I’ve written dozens of posts criticizing Trump’s character flaws and behavior, but in this instance I can’t find fault. I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time.

When I lived in Santa Monica, CA, a fellow psychiatrist quipped, “Oh, you live in the home of the homeless.” He thought he was hysterical. Most of us who lived there didn’t find it at all funny. The homeless people living on the streets have turned a sweet beach town into a place of danger and fear. You never knew when you’d be screamed at or attacked. My daughter had to flee a bathroom near the promenade when a psychotic woman tried to snatch her son. After a late movie, my wife and I literally ran home. The streets, filled with psychotic homeless individuals, looked like something out of a horror movie. We were cursed at and followed.

Placing psychiatrically ill patients in housing before they are treated is, in my opinion, a waste of valuable resources. No matter where you are living, hallucinations, delusions, and paranoid thinking don’t go away. All we do is throw billions of dollars into a never-ending morass of psychological illness.

My next statement will probably bother ACLU supporters, but we need strict laws, like we used to have. Psychotic individuals need to be placed in psychiatric facilities, AGAINST THEIR WILL, if they won’t go voluntarily. You can’t reason with psychotic thinking. It won’t work!

Use the billions of dollars that we now have to build psychiatric facilities. Karen Bass, the mayor of LA, has a good heart, but placing psychiatrically ill people in little homes won’t work. Trump is again correct. If people won’t leave the streets voluntarily, let’s gently remove them and place them in well-run tent cities where physicians, social workers, and other helpers can do an evaluation and get them treatment. Those who are simply down on their luck will do well in state and federally supported housing.

Thanks, Art

#homelessness, #Psychosis, #psychiatrictreatment, #Trump, #Bass, #involuntaryhospitalization