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The Better Side of Columnist George Will

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I can’t remember now if the tip came in first to Howie Kurtz  or to me when we were both reporters at The Washington Post. But one of us heard that members of the Reagan Administration were taking part in a nifty little boondoggle that Charles Z. Wick had approved at the United States Information Agency.  Here was the scam. If a high-ranking government employee was willing to drop by the U.S. Embassy when he and his family jetted off to London, Paris, or some other exotic city on vacation, the government would pick up the cost of his airfare. All he had to do was give an hour long “briefing” to embassy employees to qualify for the taxpayer paid ticket.

Wick was furious when we confronted him and during our exchange he blurted out that Reagan staffers were not the only Washingtonians who were getting free airfare courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Journalists were too.

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Are People Being Arbitrarily Slapped With Psychiatric Labels?

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“Psychiatry’s Bible: The DSM is doing more harm than good.”

This was the headline of a guest opinion piece printed in yesterday’s Washington Post. The editorial was written by psychologist Paula J. Caplan who argued that “hundreds of people  [are being] arbitrarily slapped with a psychiatric label and are struggling because of it.”  As an example, Caplan recounted the story of a “young mother” who had been told after a quick assessment by an emergency room doctor that she had bipolar disorder. The woman was committed to a psychiatric ward and started on dangerous psychiatric medication.

  Over the next 10 months, the woman lost her friends, who attributed her normal mood changes to her alleged disorder. Her self-confidence plummeted; her marriage fell apart. She moved halfway across the country to find a place where, on her dwindling savings, she and her son could afford to live. But she was isolated and unhappy. Because of the drug she took for only six weeks, she now, more than three years later, has an eye condition that could destroy her vision.

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What Mental Health Books Helped You?

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Each week, I receive books about mental illness from publishers who ask if I would be willing to give their book a plug. I also get requests from individuals who either want to get their books published or have self published their own books and need help publicizing  them.

This week I want to turn the tables.

What books about mental health would you recommend?

Is there a specific book that has helped you personally?

Have you written a book about mental health that you want to plug on my webpage?

Here’s your chance. Don’t be shy. I’ll start.

My friend, Clare Dickens, first published her book, A Dangerous Gift, in Iceland. It’s a moving story about her son’s struggle with bipolar disorder. When the big publishers in New York turned her down, she refused to give up. She kept knocking on doors. Recently, Politics and Prose, the Washington D.C. bookstore, published a U.S. version.  I’m happy that she is telling her story here.

Now tell me about books that helped or matter to you.
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Those Who Cannot Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It

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We need better laws and  improved mental health services.

Mike Wallace Helped Me When I Most Needed It!

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Mike Wallace and I didn’t start off as friends.

The great CBS newsman, who died Saturday at age 93, telephoned me when I was writing my first book, Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Jr. Spy Ring.  It was 1986 and Wallace had learned that I was the only reporter who had gotten John Walker Jr. to talk to me.

At the time, Walker hated the media and didn’t want to talk to anyone about the 18 years that he had spent spying for the Soviets or how he had recruited his son, Michael; his brother, Arthur; and his best friend, Jerry Whitworth, as traitors.

For those of you who haven’t read my book or might not remember the case, John Walker Jr.’s arrest in 1985 was the biggest spy scandal in the U.S. history since Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted and executed in 1953.

Walker’s treachery stunned the nation and Mike Wallace was eager to get the first television interview with him.

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Saving Others By Sharing Our Stories

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Buzz and Elaine Blackett’s son, David, ended his own life on February 27, 2011, when he was a student at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Buzz spoke about his son’s suicide in an emotional tribute during a reception held last week on the campus before I gave a lecture later that night.

Buzz recalled how David had been diagnosed with a mental illness in his teens, how he had kept it secret from his classmates, and how he had desperately wanted to be “normal.”  While in college, David decided to stop taking his medication and soon spiraled into a depression that proved fatal.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students and the main trigger is untreated depression.

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