Tag: Bernard Madoff

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LIAR AND A PERSON WHO LIES TO HIMSELF? by Art Smukler, author & psychiatrist

by artsmuklermd, posted in Childhood Trauma, Psychiatry, Self Examination, Writing

A liar is a person who willfully deceives others. Lance Armstrong and Bernard Madoff lied to protect themselves, and in the process deeply hurt innocent people.

A person who lies to himself is just a person, a regular human being like you and me, who doesn’t want to hurt anyone, including himself. We all grow up with a set of beliefs that by the time we become adults, are so embedded that it takes extraordinary methods to remove or modify them.

Jake Robb, a 41 year-old LA psychiatrist, and protagonist in Skin Dance, a mystery, had a long overdue fierce argument with his father. Jake always knew how angry he was at his father, but had never directly dealt with him. When he did, an amazing thing happened.

It was morning, sun shining through the space between the drapes, the aroma of fresh coffee, someone moving about in the kitchen. What was extraordinary to Jake, maybe even a considerable miracle, was that he had slept through the night. The endless awakenings and constant early morning arousal that had been going on for two years hadn’t happened.

Jake spent years lying to himself, not about his anger, but about the other side to all this rage, his love. It gets pretty convoluted, but most of us live with ambivalence, the existence of love and hate that lie side by side.

We’re supposed to love our parents. Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Buddhist-Bahaian beliefs make that very clear. But, what if we can’t love them, and the anger or love is hidden deep inside us? It can effect all aspects of our lives — who we choose as a mate, how we relate to peers, the pain or sense of disconnect that we experience when we’re around the parent or parents that are the object of all this feeling.

Knowing the truth about ourselves is essential. Taking Prozac or Zoloft etc., can help you feel better, but it won’t give you the information that’s hidden in your unconscious. Psychotherapy can be a very useful tool to help you tease out the threads of the past. It won’t do a lick of good to a liar. (Listening to country western music is giving me a whole new vocabulary.)

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

COMPARTMENT SYNDROME: HOW BERNARD MADOFF DID WHAT HE DID, by Art Smukler MD

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

There was a very interesting article in the August issue of Psychiatric Times, “Compartment Syndrome in Psychiatry”, by James Knoll IV, MD.

I have spent a lot of time with a psychologist (in prison), which I had never done before in my life, in order to try to figure out how I could have done it… There are these mafia people who can kill people all day long, do terrible things, and then go home to their families… But the thing is that you can compartmentalize things in your life.                                                                                                           Bernard Madoff

Bernard Madoff has apparently been examining his behavior with the help of a psychologist. His observation that one can compartmentalize, not only applies to him, but to many of us. I see it often in the office, and we all see it in the world around us:

In psychiatry, an individual can separate off certain thoughts and feelings, so that those thoughts do not encroach or disturb. This may either be a conscious or unconscious process (Freud). The process may be likened to invoking a mild state of dissociation in an attempt to confine and reduce anxiety (Gabbard).

Today, I saw a couple who sought advice on how to deal with their thirty-year-old son. He would curse at both his parents when he disagreed with them, storm out of restaurants after screaming that his mother was stupid, and then refuse to discuss anything. He has a history of alcoholism and numerous bar fights when he’s drunk. He denies that he has any alcohol problems and won’t seek help. At the same time, he writes long, loving letters to both his mother and father, telling them how wonderful they are and how he’s so lucky to have such giving, caring parents. He is a college graduate, has a good job, and supports himself.

Unlike the normal ambivalence that many feel towards their parents, this man has compartmentalized these feelings of love and hate. If he can keep his hateful feelings out of his conscious mind, he doesn’t have to feel guilty. If he can deny and compartmentalize his drinking, he doesn’t have to stop.

In some people, the compartment divider is like a hermetically sealed, case-hardened ship door. Sometimes the divider is flimsy and both sides of a person’s personality can shift back and forth. In therapy, it’s much better to have a patient with a flimsy door. The aberrant behavior is more accessible to examination and possible change. Unfortunately, patients who compartmentalize can be very difficult to treat. It may take a long time to forge a therapeutic relationship and chip away at the need to drink, have sex, overspend, or steal millions and millions from unsuspecting investors. Anything that feels good is hard to change…

Bernard Madoff did what he did because he could. His psychological compartment was so hermetically sealed that he could look friends right in the eye and get them to invest more money, up until the day he was caught. He seems like a man with only the vestige of a conscience (a sociopath). Most of us, even though we might like money and power, would feel too guilty. Unlike Abe Lincoln, we might not walk five miles to return a nickel, but we wouldn’t come close to being Bernard Madoff.

Thanks!