How far can you run from your own mind? – Page 15 – Inside The Mind of a Psychiatrist

Listening with the Third Ear (using intuition and a sixth sense to intuit what’s really going on in the minds and hearts of my patients) also applies to me.

Sitting in Starbucks this morning, I began to wonder what I was really doing — starting a blog, taking classes on Social Media, writing and publishing a book. The whole process made me anxious and not centered. Why not just see my patients, spend time with my family and friends, read the novels that I enjoy, play tennis and bike ride? Last week my son wanted to know if I was going through a mid-life crisis. My wife laughed and said that I’m too old for a mid-life crisis.

If not a mid-life crisis, then why am I so anxious? I started thinking about how the summer was half over and in just three weeks the college football season would start. That led me to think about Penn State’s head football coach, Joe Paterno. JoePa is 84 years old and still going strong. He is active, fought his way back from a recent fractured hip and leg, and is determined to only quit when he can’t function effectively anymore. According to Black Shoe Diaries by Chris Grovich, JoePa is planning on coaching another four or five years. Some in the sports world think he’s stubborn and hurting the program. Others, like myself, applaud him and his convictions. I also applaud his intellect and philosophical view of the world. Recently at Big Ten Media Day he said, “The kids today ought to go back and read Socrates. Socrates, 400 BC said, ‘The kids today are terrible tyrants. They don’t pay attention.’ That’s 2500 years ago. Ok? Anyway, I’m shooting my mouth off too much. Let’s go.”

Why even write about JoePa on a site that is allegedly about psychiatry and psychological issues? Because this, in my mind, is a great example of how Listening with the Third Ear works. Once my thoughts switched to football and then Joe Paterno and the risks that he’s taking, I realized that publishing my writing, something that I’ve loved and done for many years, is also a risk. It is a change in my everyday life, a change that might leave me vulnerable to criticism. Currently, I’m a successful and respected psychiatrist. What if this new endeavor is a bust and I’m exposed — the wizard hiding out behind his couch?

What’s the worst that can happen? People won’t like my writing. What’s the worst that can happen to JoePa? He’ll lose more games than the fans want. What does it mean? It means that exposing myself is anxiety producing. If the end result is that some people won’t like my writing and Joe will lose some games… We’ll both survive.

Once I figured this out, my anxiety actually went away! In its place is even more excitement and commitment to this new project. Now, if only Penn State can beat Alabama!

Letting your mind wander and then examining why it went where it went is how Listening with the Third Ear works.

Thanks!

Hi, I’m Art Smukler MD, a psychiatrist in private practice and on the teaching faculty at UCLA. For many years I have treated adults and adolescents with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, addictions, attention deficit disorders and many others. I love what I do, because helping people understand the mystery of what is happening to them both fascinates and enriches me. Unlike other areas of medicine, where doctors use their intellect and medical instruments (stethoscopes, x-rays, MRI’s etc.) to make a diagnosis, a psychiatrist uses his intellect and a part of his own being. Theodor Reik, a Freudian-era psychoanalyst, called it listening with the third ear. It means actually listening to someone and feeling what they feel, or more commonly what they don’t feel. You have a sixth sense, so to speak, the ability to feel what’s in their heart which may contradict what they are saying.

I feel differently than many currently practicing psychiatrists who only use the computerized part of their brain. Sadness plus lack of energy plus early morning awakening plus lack of interest in life equals DEPRESSION. The common treatment is take a Prozac and see the doctor in three weeks. What happened to the human being trapped inside all those symptoms, who still has no clue as to what’s happening except that now he has a diagnosis and a pill? The drug companies, insurance companies, and doctors think it’s all fine. Even the patient feels better — for a while. Then what? Then the same sequence of events that triggered the initial problem can set it all up again…

The logic of the unconscious, the part of us that is not available to conscious thought, has different rules than the logic of everyday life. My professional life has been spent trying to understand those rules. I want to share my experiences and what it’s like to do what I do. I want to do my best to let you inside my mind… Show you what and how the third ear works and to de-mystify the incredible process of psychotherapy.

Sometimes listening with the third ear falls on deaf ears, and medication is not only helpful, but essential. Sometimes psychotherapy is a combination of encouragement, education and caring, and other times it is a deep uncovering process that exposes years of repressed feelings and memories. Sometimes, but not often, a patient may even need ECT (electroconvulsive therapy).

Psychiatry is the study and understanding of the mind-body connection. It combines science, intuition, experience and caring. It is a unique, wonderful field and it will be exciting to share it with you.