The Downfall of Anna O.

I think my Blog is having a real existential crisis. Does it stand alone, with no real purpose. Does it make any impact on the lives of others? Does it's construct have any external meaning?

I think what my Blog needs is a shrink. A well versed, salty old dog of a shrink. Because my Blog seems, in a rather misguided way, to focus on celebrity. I shall go to the source. The font of celebrity psyche, Dr. Drew Pinsky.

But what did you say? Dr. Drew Pinsky is not a registered therapist? He actually has no qualification in treating complex mental health issuues?

Well, no dear Blog. He does not. He is of course a member of the American Society for Addiction Medicine. But I am afraid my darling Blog, that is not the same as spending up to 14 years of study and training and placements and client hours. Hundreds of client hours to be named and registered as a psychotherapist.

But he is called Dr. Drew!!

Yes my beloved Blog, but that is because he is what they call an Internist. That's fancy speak for saying he is a Doctor of adult medicine. He can poke and prod you Blog, but I fear he is not licensed in the state of California or any other state as it happens, to practice on your crisis. Wait.. ok.. I lie. He is an Addictionologist.

AHA.. and you can't fool me on THIS one. He writes books about Narcissism, drug addiction, and pill popping. So THERE. AND he has a television show, where he therapizes people. He knows addiction! He DOES. He is a god of the 12 step movement!!

Well, Blog. I know this is going to really upset you. But see, Dr. Pinsky has not written one of those books independently. He has helpers, kinda like Santa's helpers. An even Dr. Michael Miller, one time President of the of the American Society of Addiction Medicine thinks Dr. Drew steps high wide and plentiful. I think the word he used was Hyperbole in referring to a piece of an interview Dr. Drew did with Playboy. Yes, Playboy.

So lets talk about Dr. Pinsky. Or rather lets talk about how We The People have let Dr. Pinsky into our collective unconcious. I never tip tap type without all the research I can get my hands on, and the background I found on Dr. Pinsky was pretty underwhelming.

Hand on heart I can find no more then two medical journal entries listed as authored by Drew Pinsky MD. Hmmmmm. I know that he is that he is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck USC School of Medicine, that is for sure. I actually rang USC to ask them what exactly they mean by that title. I was under the impression that one had to be in training or trained in psychiatry for this title. As of press the button time, no one has been able to get back to me on that one. Maybe Drew is becoming a psychiatrist and has foiled me once again.

But I did find this:

David Drew Pinsky started off in 1985 as a humble med student and fell into his gig at the KROQ radio station's call-in show LoveLine. He was asked to appear as the resident doctor on a segment called “Ask The Surgeon”. In a slightly ironic twist, Dr. Pinsky was not qualified to be a doctor in the inception of his radio career. He was just Drew. But fame called and everyone in Los Angeles who has had even tuned into KROQ now knew who now Dr. Drew was. (I can confirm he is a of course currently Medical Doctor . I looked him up on the AMA, so it's all good)

In 1989, Drew Pinsky became Medical Director Of Los Encinas Chemical Dependency unit. As a medical doctor and I am sure his services were and are invaluable.

But I had to question: When does being a medical doctor qualify as a learned psychotherapist? It's sort of like saying you have have been a custodian at a school all your adult working life, so that gives you entitlements to teach Calculus. But on I went. I was sure to find something that vindicated with imperturbability of Dr. Drew's expertise. Why was he getting on the telly and Alice Miller is left to rot. Eh?

In 2003 Drew started to write. Well, he wrote and others corrected his spelling. I have yet to see a book with his name on it that he wrote into completion, by himself with only the help of a handy editor. In my search for better understanding about Dr. Pinsky and his career, I read some of his co authored books. It was his last one that pricked up my ears. How did Dr Drew know so much about Narcissism? Dr. Pinskys most current book is called “The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism Is Seducing America”. And Here comes the science bit. He gave Dr. Drew's Narcissism Test to 200 celebrity participants. As much as that made me chuckle, it is hardly the kind of research we should be entitled to with the exposure Drew Pinsky is offered. And all smirking beside.. where exactly is the science bit?

However I continued my hard graft. I put his name into any search engine I get about 13 million hits for information, web pages, quotes and that sort of thing and over 7 million hits for images. And many of those images are with celebrities. Many of that information is Dr. Pinsky pathologizing people in the public eye he has never met with as patients before.

Lets take for example Lindsay Lohan, who is not a current or past patient of Dr. Pinsky:

I'm really convinced that something horrible is going to have to happen to her before she really gets over it and embraces sobriety. She needs to give it up.

-Dr. Pinsky on Lindsay Lohan and her past drug issues.

Or how about Tiger Woods?

What I heard was him beating himself up for being this bad person ... that's not recovery.

-Dr. Drew on Tiger Woods and sex addiction. Or rather taking Tigers Inventory For Him

Now, either someone is having a laugh, or Dr. Drew Pinsky is pulling a fast on on us. I think this is where all that training as a analyst or even a basic run of the mill therapist would have done him good. A few lectures on transference, maybe a read of Freud s points of "On Narcissism”, or maybe a good look in his own mirror.

In the true meaning of narcissism, the DSM-IV tells us that it is pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy. Any therapist worth his or her professional integrity would have the empathetic reasoning and standard to never comment on the lives of others unless they were an agreed subject of a substantial body of ongoing work. Is it not grandiose to pontificate on matters or people Dr. Drew knows nothing personally about? I wonder if Dr. Drew just needs to feel admired for his talk talk talk. Lets face it, it is what he gets paid for. A talking head, but not a shrinker of heads.

Narcissistic much?

I find the last few sentences of an insightful article on Dr. Pinksy and his show Celebrity Rehab written by Chris Norris for the NY Times to be the most damning. Although I am horrified that Drew leads any kind of group therapy session, Tom Sizemore seems to get the game.

“May I just say that Tom’s experience, Tom’s childhood experience?” Pinsky told the group.

“Common to many experiences here. He actually told a story once that stayed with me.” Pinsky looked at Sizemore with obvious sympathy, then tried to prompt him. “You know?” he said. “About the crib?”

As Pinsky tried to draw him out, Sizemore looked back at Dr. Drew with a soft, tired smile. Finally he said,
 “Not on TV.”

But we continue to have Drew on TV. We will have him until we stop accepting that an MD does not mean inherent omniscience. That experience does not count for training and a body of ethics should be adhered to. But that's right, Dr. Drew does not have to adhere to those ethics that most workers in the psychiatry or mental health world have to. I wont wish for a TV Doctor Soul rehab.

But there is one thing I very much wish on Dr. David Drew Pinsky:

....I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty.


Above all, I must not play at God....