Category: Psychiatry

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

Who is the Strongest Man in the World? by Art Smukler, MD, author & psychiatrist

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

In 1882, Henrik Ibsen the Norwegian playwright, wrote Enemy of the People.

His protagonist, Dr. Stockman, tried everything in his power to warn the townspeople that water supplying the baths that the town spent a fortune building were being poisoned by a tannery upstream.

He was threatened by everyone, including his own brother, and labeled an Enemy of the People. The baths were too expensive to fix and the townspeople wanted the money that visitors would bring in.

Money versus doing the right thing…

Sound familiar?

I hope power brokers like Mitch McConnell are happy with their decisions.

On the other hand, Dr. Stockman risked everything to speak the truth and act on what he knew was right.

His parting statement to his adoring daughter, who was very worried for him, was “The strongest man in the world is he who stands alone.”

Like heroes who do the right thing? Check out my psychological suspense novels.

Happy reading.

Art

#psychiatrist, #courage, #Ibsen, #McConnell, #Trump, #LittleItaly, #TheSecretofCarolRosa,#PatientX, #Trump