Sadly, in the ongoing, often vitriolic debates about health care for us all, Americans have lost sight of the iconic importance of our physicians and medical scientists -- the foundation of our medical health care system. Nowhere in these debates is there evidence of any awareness of the societal value...

Somewhere, sometime, accelerating rapidly recently, we Americans have lost it--the American Dream.

We were the land of opportunity, the land of equality, warts and all. We were imperfect from the start, but who isn't. Our Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and Constitution, establishing our Representative Democracy will live...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that physicians' prescribing practices have finally caught up with us in a big way. In 2009, the annual number of deaths (37,485) caused by improper/overprescribing and poor to non-existent monitoring of the use of tranquilizers, painkillers and stimulant drugs...

The practice of psychiatry has become industrialized, learning from and emulating Henry Ford's production-line methodology while borrowing a twisted version of President Roosevelt's New Deal. Features include a highly controlled environment and a mechanized system of carefully timed and impersonal clinic-patient-doctor interactions, combined with an Orwellian financial c-change, amongst others.

Although the concept may seem simple, that of a psychiatrist prescribing medications that supposedly work, cause little or no harm, and are scientifically proven to meet at least these aforementioned three criteria, couldn't be further from simple. Many well-intentioned, very well-educated, highly experienced and dedicated psychiatrists face medication dilemmas in...

The Bible (or really any religious text) can be made to say and mean anything the author wishes.

The "Bible" of psychiatry, that fabled and hoary text, the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders written by the American Psychiatric Association), is no different. Conceived as an instrument...

Life is different now. Psychiatry different. Psychiatric training, way different.

Back in the day, psychiatrists actually spent time talking with patients. We were trained in and actually did psychotherapy. Some of us psychiatrists from those days and few from these days still practice psychotherapy. Many don't.

Back then, after finishing...

Written by Ronald Ricker, M.D and Dr. Venus Nicolino

The 'truths' are falling like raindrops in a thunderstorm -- 'Truths' about the financial disaster that is consuming our society. Our economy supposedly collapsed because our financial system froze, stopping lending, largely because of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco. It was this...

The purpose of Mortgage Modification has long been forgotten. Really forgotten.  It was to help 'stimulate' our pathetic economy, not to reward scofflaws for their greedy misdeeds. Stimulation was to result in regular, home owning Americans re-entering the economy, purchasing as they did before.  It now is often seen by...

A colleague, Dr. Venus Nicolino, sent me this quote, complete with her pithy assessment.

"File under "You've Got to be F***ing Kidding Me": Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell just declared April "Confederate History Month". Really? Is the South in danger of losing touch with its racist past? Will the voice of...

The names of the subjects in the following entry have been changed to protect their privacy.

Meet the Hernandez family. There's mom and dad, two daughters, and a son-in-law. All live in their parents' home, which is in Los Angeles.

I spoke mostly to Mary Hernandez, who...

Foreclosed people are the people who lived in the now Foreclosed homes. There will be 23,600,000 Foreclosed people by the end of this year.

Approximately 1.9 million homes were foreclosed last year and an additional 3 million will be this year, totaling 4,9 million. If we estimate that each of...

In a speech to Congress on February 24, 2010, "The Monetary Report To Congress", Mr. Bernanke, amongst many other items, stressed the fact that the Federal Reserve is going to 'lean on' banks to make loans to 'credit worthy borrowers'. This happens to be something that the banks just haven't...

It started innocently enough. Six years ago.

Year 1. Someone gave me a Cymbidium plant. Outdoor orchid. Pretty flowers. I'm no dummy. Bought more Cymbidiums. Get more flowers that way. Didn't get more flowers. In fact, no flowers. Back to the flower mart. "Use this fertilizer in the winter, this...

There is a large exodus of African Americans from Los Angeles, many of whom are moving to southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi, the very states that wrecked the most havoc on them in the past.

We know that the results of child abuse can be devastating and...

While reading The Huffington Post a few days ago, I ran across a blog, written by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, extolling the virtues of California's latest and greatest and probably biggest 'Boondoggle' ever, otherwise known as the California Bullet Train. California has its own special and unique...

The duties of parents are many. We must structure our homes, set rules, expectations, consequences, etc. We all have had different types of parents, different mothers, parenting styles, levels of humor, love, social values, interests, levels of encouragement, empathy, understanding, passion, openness, generosity, structure, predictability, rigidity, etc. These are some...

Never underestimate California's creative ability to make good things bad, bad things worse, and worse things into catastrophes. We were The Golden State. The money is gone ($26 Billion budget deficit and growing). The education system has gone from great to horrendous (currently rated last in the Nation). The Infrastructure...

Mr. President, what catastrophes will you accept in Afghanistan? Huge numbers of deaths and injuries to our personnel and non-combatants? Perhaps leavened by "Friends" who tell you whatever you want to hear? The giving up of Bin Laden (dream on)? The touring of Al Qaeda camps and their weapons, (how...

Picture: November 21 and 22, 2009. Los Angeles. Linden Center, the Program that I direct, has had a tremendous amount of difficulty caring for a 14 year old girl -- let's call her Mary. She, unfortunately, is a Manic-Depressive Psychotic. She had run away a total of 5 days in...