January 24. 2012 | Jim Silver
“How can you stand working with psychopaths?” is a question I sometimes hear when people find out that I’m criminal lawyer. And, yes, over the years, I’ve prosecuted and represented people who’ve done pretty bad things, but I still find the question fascinating because of the assumptions behind it – that all criminals are psychopaths (they’re not) and that all psychopaths are criminals (they’re not). Depending on how well I know the person, I might respond: “How can you stand working…
January 23. 2012 | Ron Schouten
In the professional world, we’re all supposed to have an “elevator speech”: a brief description of the work we do that can be delivered in the time it takes for a typical elevator ride—somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes. And of course, in social encounters one of the most common questions is “What do you do?” In both situations, I take a breath—because I know that this is not going to be a simple explanation– and answer: “I’m a psychiatrist and direct the forensic psychiatry…
January 20. 2012 | Rob Doyle
Have you ever heard of a High-Risk Drinking Calendar? Harvard University’s Office of Alcohol & Other Drug Services publishes one annually. This is not one of those calendars with picturesque landscapes that reflect each season, nor does each month feature a different impressionistic painting. Instead, it is simple one page calendar with certain dates printed in red, amber, or green. Red dates rate the highest risk for drinking at Harvard. For example, January 28th is a red date…
