Raising Children – Page 10 – Inside The Mind of a Psychiatrist

I’ve voted for both Republicans and Democrats. It’s safe to say that my mind is steeped in bipartisanship. But now, without a doubt, I am horrified by the immaturity of the Republican Party, by the twisted baby thinking of men and women who never grew up.

Whether you like or dislike Obamacare, it is a law that was passed by congress and authorized by the Supreme Court. Because Republicans don’t like the law, they are having a public temper tantrum. It reminds me of a toddler who is told that it’s his bedtime and he screams and screams because that’s not what he wants to do.

So much of what children believe is based on fantasy and a sense that “I want what I want when I want it.” It is grandiose and destructive and often places the child in danger.

Watching these babies pretend they are adults is a lesson in how we shouldn’t behave. It is a lesson that every teacher, in every social studies and political science class, should stop everything and focus on.

It is an opportunity to teach future politicos about how not to govern; so our country can be led and kept safe by rational adults.

It only takes one or two brave men or women to stand up to the toddlers. Lead your party out of this immature, dangerous chaos and both republicans and democrats will reward you with their votes.

If you enjoy being Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist, you might also enjoy, Chasing Backwards, a psychological murder mystery, Skin Dance, a mystery, and The Man with a Microphone in his Ear. All are available as paperbacks and eBooks.

I just finished reading an article, Remembering Michael Kelly, by Bret Stephens, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal. Michael Kelly was a grown-up version of Holden Caulfield, a man who despised phonies, but unlike Holden, he was courageous enough to actually do something about it.

While embedded with the troops outside of Baghdad, he wrote, “To march against the war is not to give peace a chance. It is to give tyranny a chance.” Kelly died in Iraq, in 2003, a courageous man backing up his words with his actions.

When Frank Sinatra died in 1998, everyone mourned Old Blue Eyes except Michael Kelly. Kelly hated Frank because he had invented Cool and Cool had replaced Smart. “Cool said the old values were for suckers… Cool didn’t go to war; Saps went to war, and anyway, cool had no beliefs he was willing to die for. Cool never, ever, got into a fight it might lose; cool had friends who could take care of that sort of thing.”

What was Smart? “Smart was Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca: He possessed an outward cynicism, but at his core he is a square… He is willing to die for his beliefs, and his beliefs are, although he takes pains to hide it, old-fashioned. He believes in truth, justice, the American way and love… Where there is a war, he goes to it.”

Psychiatry at its core is a medical specialty that values discovering the underlying truth and freeing a person from the bondage of hidden secrets. The cool quick fix of “just take a Xanax and chill” is not what most psychiatrists believe. The work of untangling the hidden past, in the end can free us to think and make decisions based on a reasoned approach to truth rather than the way we were programmed by our parents and society. I guess Michael Kelly and psychiatry have a lot in common. Not that I don’t appreciate Frank Sinatra’s contribution, I do, but I also appreciate the way an honest man thinks.

So, as I listen to Frankie croon, My Way, I think about wearing my old Armani sports jacket and decide instead to put on a pair of jeans and a battered leather jacket. Is that cool or smart? Maybe it just doesn’t matter. Maybe what’s really important is to just be myself. We’re all works-in-progress and to develop new approaches to life and keep learning is what’s important. It’s what’s important in my office and what’s important out of the office. I toast all free thinkers who aren’t afraid to learn and apply what they’ve learned, even though it may not be PC.

Special thanks to Dr. Bernard Feldman, definitely a free thinker, who gave me a copy of Bret Stephens’ article.

Art Smukler MD is the author of Skin Dance, a mystery, Chasing Backwards, a psychological murder mystery, The Man with a Microphone in his Ear, and the blog, Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist.