Mark Rubinstein wrote a new article, “Can We Ever Really Change Who We Are?” for Psych Central. In it, he writes about his experience as an author and a psychiatrist. You can read the full post here.
Review of ‘Bedlam’s Door’ in The Providence Journal
“Bedlam’s Door”
Mark Rubinstein’s eye-opening “Bedlam’s Door” (Thunder Lake Press, $15.95, 280 pages) might not be fiction, but it certainly helps us better understand the methods and motivations of the psychologically damaged who populate both sides of the genre.
Rubinstein, who practiced psychiatry in the military and afterward, has framed his book around a series of case studies that, taken as a whole, strive to provide a keen and often scary grasp of what makes people do the inexplicable. For our consideration, he presents patients who suffer from a myriad of conditions, from surgical addiction to identity disorder, trauma, and depression, just to name a few. All in captivating prose that provides a unique insight into the fragility of the human mind.
In reading “Bedlam’s Door,” I couldn’t help but be struck by how Rubinstein’s well thought-out conclusions apply to a literal rogue’s gallery of fictional villains, as well as heroes, from Hannibal Lecter to Jack Reacher, from Darth Vader to Batman. A masterful treatise on mental (un)health, as professionally polished as it is riveting.
Bedlam’s Door reviewed in the Providence Journal
Jon Land, author of many thrillers himself, reviewed Bedlam’s Door in the Providence Journal‘s September 29th “Thriller Roundup”:
Mark Rubinstein’s eye-opening “Bedlam’s Door” (Thunder Lake Press, $15.95, 280 pages) might not be fiction, but it certainly helps us better understand the methods and motivations of the psychologically damaged who populate both sides of the genre.
Rubinstein, who practiced psychiatry in the military and afterward, has framed his book around a series of case studies that, taken as a whole, strive to provide a keen and often scary grasp of what makes people do the inexplicable. For our consideration, he presents patients who suffer from a myriad of conditions, from surgical addiction to identity disorder, trauma, and depression, just to name a few. All in captivating prose that provides a unique insight into the fragility of the human mind.
In reading “Bedlam’s Door,” I couldn’t help but be struck by how Rubinstein’s well thought-out conclusions apply to a literal rogue’s gallery of fictional villains, as well as heroes, from Hannibal Lecter to Jack Reacher, from Darth Vader to Batman. A masterful treatise on mental (un)health, as professionally polished as it is riveting.
‘Reckless Creed,’ A Conversation with Alex Kava
Alex Kava is the internationally bestselling author of fifteen thrillers which have been published in thirty-two countries. In 2015, she launched a new series featuring Ryder Creed, a former marine turned K-9 search-and-rescue dog trainer and Maggie O’Dell, a character from the previous series.
Reckless Creed, Alex Kava’s sixteenth thriller, finds Ryder Creed at the center of an ominous case. In Chicago, a young man jumps from his hotel room window; in Alabama, the body of a young woman is found; and along the Missouri River, hunters stumble upon a lake whose surface is littered with dead snow geese. Before long, Ryder and O’Dell discover the deaths are connected by a conspiracy and a deadly virus.
Ryder Creed is a different kind of investigative character. Tell us a bit about him.
He’s different because he’s not from law enforcement. That’s one reason I brought Maggie O’Dell into the story, so she could put together the law enforcement pieces of the puzzle. Ryder is a reluctant hero. He would be content to simply live his life in the company of dogs and not get terribly involved with people.
When I began writing the Maggie O’Dell series, I knew next-to-nothing about law enforcement and had to research nearly everything. I’m finally writing about something I know and love: dogs.
Ryder often gets pulled in to help other people, and wants to do the right thing, which can take him into situations he shouldn’t be in. He’s a refreshing character to write about because he’ll confront danger even though it’s not necessarily his job to do so.
Integral to Reckless Creed is a tracking dog’s ability to smell and detect various odors. Tell us about this ability.
It’s incredible. Dogs actually have different layers for sifting through scents. Out in the open, they sometimes begin breathing rapidly and bring air into their nasal passages, sorting through the scents.
A handler told me a good way to understand dogs’ ability to sort through odors was with this analogy: if we have a pot of beef stew on the stove, we smell stew. But dogs can smell the individual ingredients—the beef, carrots, potatoes, the onions—and sift through each of the scents.
So, dogs have an exquisite olfactory inventory. In Reckless Creed, you describe virus-sniffing dogs, which makes me think of the real life issue of dogs being used for medical detection. Will you talk about that?
Several organizations are researching using dogs to detect certain kinds of cancer. They’re now being used to detect diabetes. There was a case in the UK detailing how a little boy with Type I diabetes had a dog trained to wake up the parents during the night if the boy’s insulin level was low. The dog’s sensitivity was so great, the child could play football with the dog sitting on the sidelines, yet even from that distance, it could alert the parents if the child’s blood sugar was either too high or low.
Research is being done on dogs’ detection ability with cancer cells. There have been studies where they’ve determined dogs can detect certain types of cancer at an earlier stage than any of our most sophisticated testing methods. This includes prostate, breast, and lung cancer. All that’s needed is a breath sample from the patient.
I met a young girl in Denver whose dog was able to alert her and summon help when she was about to have an epileptic attack.
These extraordinary abilities will be put to further use in the health care as well as in the security and law enforcement fields.
Can dogs sniff and detect something like bird flu or C. difficile without themselves becoming infected?
Yes. They’ve taken dogs into nursing homes because elderly people are so susceptible to C. Diff. Dogs can detect it at an earlier stage than more traditional methods. If it’s caught at an earlier stage, lives can definitely be saved. And fortunately, dogs cannot contract C. Diff.
As for bird flu, there’s not much research about that. But I’ve talked to some veterinarian friends—who are vital research resources for me—and they’ve told me there’s a flu in dogs that resembles bird flu in humans. They’ve been using a viral antidote for it.
You’ve written both series and standalone novels. What are the advantages of each?
I never intended to write a series when I started the Maggie O’Dell stories. I intended the first book to be a standalone, but the publisher wanted a second one, then a third, and then it became a series. I learned how to write a series by the seat of my pants. Looking back, that’s what kept Maggie so fresh: I was getting to know her along with my readers.
There’s something rejuvenating about writing a standalone novel. Even though it’s comforting to have a series with the same characters surrounding you each time, with a standalone, you create an entirely different group of people. I try writing each of my series’ novels to read as if it were a standalone. The process of writing a standalone allows me to create a whole new world.
What do you love about the writing life?
I love coming up with twists and turns, and believe it or not, I love doing research. I love learning new things. I’m a news junkie, so if something taps my interest, I start digging. And I come up with plots and sub-plots from what I’ve read, and then I go wild with them.
You’re hosting a dinner party and can invite any five people, living or dead, real or fictional, from any walk of life. Who would they be?
I would start by inviting Harper Lee because To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book. It would be amazing to be able to talk with her. Then, I’d invite Alfred Hitchcock because I love using the Hitchcockian approach to suspense thrillers—bringing the readers to the edge and leaving them there. My next guest would be Scout Finch. Can you imagine Scout contradicting some of the stories as Harper Lee would be trying to tell them? Amelia Earhart is fascinating, so I’d invite her. And the fifth would be Jack London, a real dog person, because I just loved Call of the Wild.
What’s coming next from Alex Kava
The next book is Lost Creed and deals with the mystery surrounding Creed’s sister, Brodie, who disappeared from a rest stop during a family road trip. Brodie was only eleven and Creed was fourteen when it happened.
Congratulations on writing Reckless Creed, an unusually suspenseful and provocative thriller detailing the chilling possibilities we face in today’s unpredictable and dangerous world.
Bedlam’s Door Reviewed by Elise Ronan
Bedlam’s Door was reviewed by Elise Ronan on the blog Journaling on Paper. In her review, she writes that “Dr. Rubinstein’s book is unique in that it presents those with mental heath conditions as the fragile human beings that they are.” She also adds a personal note, in closing:
In all honesty, one of the largest problems we faced over the years is the lack of compassion by society at large. Dr. Rubinstein’s book will provide an understanding and recognition about the humanity of those dealing with various mental health conditions. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a career in social work, education, medicine, and even human resources.
You can read the whole review here.
‘Santorini Caesars,’ A Conversation with Jeffrey Siger
Jeffrey Siger, a former Wall Street attorney, gave up his legal career to write mystery thrillers. Living on the Greek island of Mykonos, he has written his eighth novel in the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series. His books have been nominated for the Left Coast Crime an
d Barry Awards.
Santorini Caesars begins with the assassination of a young demonstrator by trained killers in the heart of protest-charged Athens. Chief Inspector Kaldis, convinced the killing was far more than what it seemed, takes the investigation to the beautiful island of Santorini where he encounters a secret gathering of Greece’s top military commanders who are devising their own response to the uncertainties and political crisis facing their country.
It could be a coup d’état, or something else since Greece has a history of deposing duly-elected governments. The international intrigue escalates as the threat of another assassination looms, and Kaldis moves to expose what is going on and tries to stop it.
Andreas Kaldis is an intriguing character. Tell us a little about him.
Andreas is a second generation cop living in a land where police are not highly regarded. No matter how the political winds blow, he stands up for what he believes is right. He deals with the issues confronting his country and has the authority to
investigate crime as well as political corruption.
How has he evolved over the course of eight novels?
For his first assignment, Kaldis started off on the island of Mykonos. He was sent there as ‘punishment’ for having been too closely on the heels of certain corrupt officials back in Athens. On Mykonos, he met Yanni Kouros, who becomes his sidekick for the rest of the series. Kaldis gets married and eventually returns to Athens. There, he is promoted to his present position of Chief Inspector and is empowered to investigate a variety of crises confronting Greece.
Each book in the series is essentially an element in a mosaic exploring a crisis for Greece as well as for Europe. Whether it be the relationship of Greece to the church, its relationship to its own government, the situation with migrants, or other social and political issues, each book delves into a contemporary problem.
The island of Santorini plays an important role in this novel and almost becomes a character. Tell us about this island’s history and role in the novel.
Santorini has probably been more firmly fixed in the world’s imagination than any other Greek island. It’s said to be the lost island of Atlantis. Enormous earthquakes and volcanoes have happened in this area. If you look at Santorini, it’s the view from the caldera, the rim of what once was the volcano, that is one of the world’s most intriguing vantage points. You will see blues and greens you’ve never seen elsewhere. Strangely, the very earthquakes that destroyed much of the island, are responsible for it having become an important Greek tourist destination.
How does the current refugee crisis in Europe make for fertile ground in writing your mystery novels?
Are you reading the draft of my next book? [Laughter]. That’s precisely what I’m writing about. The refugee situation is a crisis for the world. If you live in the Middle East or Africa and fear for your children, you look toward Europe as a safe haven. The only rational wish is to get your children out of these places.
That’s the motivation driving this migration by refugees. It will never end until the world recognizes something must be done politically and environmentally. Greece has become the filter-trap for refugees. Previously, Greece had a homogeneous population. With the influx of a million refugees into a country of ten million people, there’s been a ten percent increase in population. The politics have become more polarized. There are now people of different faiths and cultures in the country. Everything has become intensified. This has given rise to the growing power of right-wing parties. These dynamics are playing out in a country that doesn’t have the money to sustain itself because Greece is basically bankrupt.
Each pressure creates a reaction and that’s very rich fodder for my books. Living on Mykonos, I have access to people in government and business, so my writing becomes informed. Andreas Kaldis is the perfect vehicle for expressing concerns about these compelling national and world issues.
What made you give up practicing law to become a full- time novelist?
When I was younger, I always thought I’d become a writer.
I went to school with a kid with whom I played football. One day in class, he stood up and read something he had written. The teacher said, ‘All of you writers…if you work hard, you’ll be able to write like this young man.’ I never believed I could write as well as he did, so I became a lawyer.
That guy’s name is John Edgar Wideman, who went on to write Philadelphia Fire, which won the 1990 PEN/Faulkner Award. He’s a distinguished novelist.
Years later, someone who read my writing encouraged me to begin writing full-time. I had a successful law practice and didn’t want to give that up to become a struggling writer.
But, while practicing law, I sat down and wrote a book which was very well-received. A friend urged me to pursue writing full-time. It was after 9/11, and I said to myself, ‘Life’s too short.’ I walked away from my law practice, began to write full-time, and have never regretted a moment of it. I teach mystery writing at a university and tell my students, ‘Writing is a lousy way to make a living, but a wonderful way to make a life.’ Not having become a writer earlier allowed me to more comfortably practice my art as a writer.
Which authors in the mystery/thriller genres do you read?
When I’m writing, I don’t read other mystery writers. It can throw me off my game. My favorite writer is Cormac McCarthy. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries are a favorite of mine. If I named all my favorite writers, I’d probably lose a number of friends [Laughter].
What’s coming next from Jeffrey Siger?
You already anticipated my next book. I’m involved in a project dealing with the refugee crisis and haven’t as yet determined how I’m going to handle this issue in the next Andreas Kaldis novel, but it will get done.
Congratulations on writing Santorini Caesars, a novel that’s both a rock-solid mystery and comments incisively about so many issues besetting Europe and the world today.
Book Review: Bedlam’s Door by Mark Rubinstein, M.D.
Today 1 in 5 Americans suffers from a mental illness. These diagnoses can be anything from anxiety, to depression, to psychosis or bi-polar disorder. Each illness varies in its effect and its degree of disability. Sadly these conditions remain suspect and misunderstood. The stigma surrounding mental health issues is so overwhelming that most people choose to suffer rather than actually access the necessary psychiatric care. For many it is not until there is a major life crisis that the medical world steps in and sadly, even then, we find that our prison system is a major response to psychiatric illness.
A new book that attempts to dispel some of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding mental illness, is written by Dr. Mark Rubinstein. In his book Bedlam’s Door, he opens up the world of psychiatry and the mental health community. He introduces us to several of his patients and tries to bring us into the reality in which they live. Whether the patient is dealing with PTSD brought on as a Holocaust survivor, suicide, uncontrollable OCD, or a manipulative psychotic, the reader begins to understand the nuances and the fine lines that the psychiatric community needs to traverse.
Every case is different, even when it is the same illness. It’s learning how to read the unwritten cues and finding a way into a person’s psyche that is the talent of a good doctor. You are drawn into the quest to help those who are calling out for help and yet have no way to help themselves. It is a look into a world that is not only misinterpreted by the uninitiated, but in many quarters, reviled for the fear and loathing it engenders.
Dr. Rubinstein, examines his patients’ humanity. He has the reader see the underlying problems, the still waters that exacerbate and alienate those who are dealing with diseases that the world cannot see. He explains how he handled each problem and gives us a follow-up. The “Aftermath” of each episode is not sugar-coated. He does not hide the truth. Not every situation ended on a positive note. As with every illness in the world, doctors can do only their best, and yet sometimes even that is not enough.
Dr. Rubinstein’s book is unique in that it presents those with mental heath conditions as the fragile human beings that they are. He shows how the medical community can help, support and provide that doorway of transition from the loneliness of mental illness back to the functioning, productive real world. He is also not afraid to show how the medical community at times fails their patients due to incompetence, misdiagnosis or even neglect. He calls out to society as a whole for understanding, compassion and respect for those dealing with these invisible, and mostly misunderstood, medical issues.
On a personal note: As anyone who has followed me for a while, you know that I write a blog called Raising Asperger’s Kids. This blog revolves around the issues we encountered in bringing up our sons, both of whom, are on the autism spectrum. Along with autism our family also deals with the issues arising out of ADHD, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder and epilepsy.
In all honesty, one of the largest problems we faced over the years is the lack of compassion by society at large. Dr. Rubinstein’s book will provide an understanding and recognition about the humanity of those dealing with various mental health conditions. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a career in social work, education, medicine, and even human resources.
I recommend this book for anyone who seeks to make the world a better place.
‘Debt to Pay,” A Talk with Reed Farrel Coleman
Reed Farrel Coleman, a best selling author of 24 previous novels, has penned the popular Moe Prager series as well as other well-received books. He’s a three-time winner of the Shamus Award, and has won the Macavity and Barry Awards, among others.
Robert Parker, considered by many to have been the dean of American crime fiction, was the author of seventy books, including the series featuring Chief Jesse Stone.
After Parker’s death in 2010, Reed Farrel Coleman was chosen to keep this immensely popular series alive.
In Debt to Pay we find Chief Jesse Stone romantically involved with former FBI agent Diana Evans. When a Boston crime boss is murdered, Jesse suspects it’s the work of Mr. Peepers, a deranged assassin who has caused trouble for Jesse in the past. Peepers promised revenge against the Mob, Jesse, and one of Jesse’s cops, and against Jesse’s ex-wife Jenn. Peepers toys with the police as to the when and where he’ll strike, and Jesse knows there’s a steep debt to pay and blood will be spilled in the process.
Debt to Pay is the third Jesse Stone novel you’ve written. What was it like to take over a series written by the legendary Robert B. Parker?
It was an interesting challenge because I felt like a psychologist might feel stepping into Sigmund Freud’s shoes. [Laughter] It’s not like I took over some minor writer’s character…I tried not to worry about that reality, and decided not to try to live up to Bob’s legacy. I think writing is difficult enough without throwing more hurdles in front of myself than already exist. I realized how momentous a task it was, but my approach was to simply write the best book I could.
Do you feel you had to adhere to Robert Parker’s voice for Jesse, or were you tempted to take him in a slightly different direction?
When I was offered the opportunity, one of the first people I called was my friend, Tom Schreck. He’s an author, New York State boxing judge, a drug counselor, and a huge Robert B. Parker fan. I wanted his advice about how to go about writing these books. He said something that crystallized my approach to this series.
Tom is an avid Elvis Presley fan. He said, ‘I’ve seen all the best Elvis impersonators, but no matter how good they are, there are two things you can never get past: number one is, you’re aware it’s an imitation, and number two is, the impersonator can never do anything new. He’s trapped in the Elvis persona. His words were like an explosion in my head. I determined not to try imitating Bob, because I could never escape the fact that readers would see it as imitation. And, imitation—no matter how good—is never as good as the original. And, I could never do anything new if I was going to mimic what Bob did. I decided I’d be true to the character—Jesse Stone would act as he had in the past, but the reader would see different aspects of Jesse emerge, and the town of Paradise would evolve. So, in a sense, I use the same camera Bob did, but my focus is different.
In Debt to Pay, Jesse has given up drinking alcohol. What accounts for this turn of events?
He gives it up temporarily. If you think of Jesse Stone, you think of Tom Selleck, who played him on TV … a tall, handsome guy who’s athletic and whom women love. A reader can have trouble relating to someone like that. Everyday people relate to Jesse because he struggles, as do we all. Personal challenges are what make us human. I think it’s really important to show Jesse having serious problems with alcohol. Sometimes he succeeds, and sometimes he fails.
I’m familiar with your series’ characters: Moe Prager, Gus Murphy, and now, Jesse Stone. How do you go about formulating different characters for various different series?
My own series are easier because the best place to look for new characters is to look in the mirror. Somewhat like method acting for writing, I try coming up with some aspect of a character that I feel within myself—a flaw, an emotion, an incident—something that happens to me, and it becomes the basis for a character. It’s far more challenging to find a way into somebody else’s character. My way into Jesse was his baseball career because I’ve always been an avid baseball fan and consider myself a jock. That was my route into Jesse.
You’ve been called a ‘hard-boiled poet’ and the ‘noir poet laureate’ by various critics. What about your writing has resulted in these characterizations?
Bribery. [Laughter]. I started as a poet when I was thirteen, and it’s evolved into prose, but I’ve never lost my love for the sound of language. I’m not conscious of it while working, but when I re-read my writing, I see a certain lyricism, and know I’ve never lost the love of the sound of words.
If you could read any one novel again as though it’s the first time you’re reading it, which one would it be?
That’s pretty easy for me to answer. It would be The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. It has its flaws, but it’s the kind of writing I wish I could do. There are others like Slaughterhouse Five that come close, and if I didn’t write crime novels for a living, it would be a different novel.
What, if anything, keeps you awake at night?
The cat and the New York Mets. [Laughter].
I don’t regret things. I don’t look back and rue my decisions. I’m not a big sleeper; I sleep five or six hours at most. So nothing really keeps me up at night.
Looking back at your career, has your writing process changed in any way?
I’m not sure my process has changed, but I’ve changed as a writer. I’ve never stopped being influenced by other writers. My writing has become slightly more refined. For me, the more I write, the better I get at it. When I no longer feel I’m getting better as a writer, that’s when I’ll stop. For example, I once had an idea for a novel, but I wasn’t yet a good enough writer to tackle it. It took me five years to complete Gun Church because it took me that long to develop the skills needed to write that novel.
What’s coming next from Reed Farrel Coleman?
Another Gus Murphy novel is coming next. It’s called What You Break.
Congratulations on writing Debt to Pay, a beautifully crafted novel that captures Robert B. Parker’s world view, as it tells the tense story of a flawed but intrepid police chief who finds himself pitted against a tenacious “cat-and-mouse” killer.
Mark Rubinstein’s latest book is Bedlam’s Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope, a psychiatric/medical memoir.
“True Tales from the Psych Ward” in the Wilton Bulletin
Jeannette Ross of The Wilton Bulletin wrote an article about Mark Rubinstein which highlighted his latest book, Bedlam’s Door. You can read the full article, “True Tales from the Psych Ward,” here.
“Bedlam’s Door” Interview
Mark Rubinstein’s new book is Bedlam’s Door, a collection of nonfiction stories from his career as a psychiatrist. — Jeannette Ross photo
Mark Rubinstein loves stories. It was a major factor in why he chose to specialize in psychiatry as he was working toward his medical degree.
General medicine was too uniform, he said — high blood pressure, gall bladders, heart ailments. “There are no stories,” he said in an interview with The Bulletin late last month. “I love stories.” As a psychiatrist, he said, “I was privy to some of the most amazing things.”
Now a Wilton author most noted for a run of novels including Mad Dog House and The Lovers’ Tango, Rubinstein has taken some of those stories and arranged them in an engrossing new work of nonfiction, Bedlam’s Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope.” The book, which was published Sept. 1, includes 15 stories taken from Rubinstein’s decades of practice.
His reason for writing the book was to clear up misunderstandings about psychiatry, mental health “and what madness means.”
“I have this wealth of stories, many of which read like fiction and in a sense truth is stranger than fiction,” he said. While the names and a few other details have been changed, “these things actually happened. … the basics are all true and some of them are hard to believe,” he added.
“I picked those that are most memorable — either they were odd or something I couldn’t get out of my mind. Some of them are 25 to 30 years old.” They include a man who manages to commit suicide while hospitalized, a man in an expensive, but tattered suit and carrying a mysterious briefcase, who seeks “accommodations” at a hospital, a woman whose hair-dying episode leads to endless house cleaning, the son of a mobster who seeks counseling because his family does not respect him.
The stories primarily stem from his work first as a resident and then as an attending physician at a major New York City hospital. Most came through the doors of the emergency room, hence the title, Bedlam’s Door.
With each chapter he tells a story and then adds an afterword, either filling the reader in on what happened to the patient, relating how the case affected him, or how it fit in on the continuum of mental health care.
“I tried to pick an array of tales that show an aspect of pathology,” Rubinstein said. They deal with PTSD, depression, suicide attempts, obsessive-compulsive behavior, schizophrenia, survivor’s guilt and more. But behind them all are the stories — stories of people’s lives and the events that brought them to Rubinstein.
“You can see 20 people with depression and hear 20 different stories,” he said.
Each story offers an inside look at how a psychiatrist confronts each case and begins to search for what can be a very elusive reason for a person’s behavior. Without the physical symptoms available to an internist, the psychiatrist must rely on the patient’s willingness to make what can be very painful revelations.
When asked which patients are the most difficult to treat, the answer was not what one might expect.
“The easiest to get asymptomatic are the severely psychotic patients,” he said. Medications can “suffocate” schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms. And those who are clinically depressed can also be helped immensely with medication.
“The most difficult to turn around are the garden-variety people who have what we sometimes refer to as neurotic patterns,” he said. These “maladaptive interactive patterns of behavior” such as the passive-aggressive person who is alway late, the super-aggressive person who always says what’s on their mind and drives others “insane,” the woman who always falls for the guy who pays no attention to her, the man who always finds a woman who berates him because as a child his mother was very harsh.
These are the kinds of problems that are very difficult to change, he said. “They are not serious mental illnesses, but they are conditions that create unhappiness,” Rubinstein said. “Most come [for help] when they realize how unhappy they are after a long time.”
Forensic psychiatry
In Bedlam’s Door Rubinstein also reveals something of himself. Several of his stories focus on forensic psychiatry, the field in which the practice of psychiatry intersects with the law — an area in which Rubinstein specialized.
His first foray into that arena involved a patient he refers to as Patricia. She was grieving the sudden loss of her husband and suffering from PTSD, brought on by the trauma of seeing him lying in his coffin with his neck broken, an act committed by the funeral home to make the tall man fit into an inadequately sized casket.
There was reason to believe Patricia was going to commit suicide, and so she was hospitalized. But, as is her right, she petitioned to be released and thus a hearing was scheduled before a judge. Rubinstein, who was a first-year resident at the time, was tasked with testifying for her continued hospitalization. He recalls his nervousness as he was cross-examined and his efforts to keep Patricia in the hospital where she could be treated.
Rubinstein’s next foray into a courtroom was as a paid expert witness in a malpractice case brought by a woman who attempted suicide by jumping in front of a subway train. The woman, referred to as Willa Mae, had gone off her medication and began hearing voices that were telling her to harm herself. She went to a hospital that was not the one where Rubinstein worked, and asked the psychiatrist who examined her to admit her. He was not convinced she was a danger to herself or others and told her to go home. He even gave her a token to take the subway. She begged him to admit her but he would not.
After she did indeed listen to the voices that told her to jump, Willa Mae wound up at Rubinstein’s hospital where her leg was amputated. He was asked to evaluate her and she told him her story.
Months later he received a call from an attorney explaining Willa Mae, was suing the doctor who sent her home for malpractice. Would Rubinstein be interested in testifying as an expert witness for her? He agreed and recounts the courtroom drama, “the thrusts of the attorney’s questions,” and his feelings throughout.
It was a path he would follow throughout his career as he was eventually asked to evaluate plane crash survivors, rape victims, car crash victims as well as more than 300 survivors of 9/11.
Life lessons
As for the stories in his book, Rubinstein considers them lessons in life.
“I view each as a mini-mystery — why does a woman say ‘I can’t stop washing my hands?’”
He has at least 300 more he could write about, which is why a second book is already in the works based on cases from his private practice.
Bedlam’s Door is published by Thunder Lake Press of Laguna Hills, Calif.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- …
- 44
- Next Page »