Suicide Rate Among Baby Boomers Increases Sharply

By Albert Fuchs, M.D.
Published on May 10, 2013

Privileged White Girl Problems

By Tamara Shayne Kagel
Published on December 9, 2011

Ghosts, Spirits and My Kids’ Wild Imagination…

By Julia Bendis
Published on June 23, 2011

I hear you knocking

By Steve Greenberg
Published on October 9, 2008

Post-Palin Depression

By Marty Kaplan
Published on September 11, 2008

This is not just a Jewish phenomenon, though a few thousand years of expecting to be scapegoated, persecuted, exiled or killed certainly contributes to the melancholic gene Jews are known for carrying, the optimism of a Ben-Gurion or Sandy Koufax notwithstanding.

Richard Lewis, comedian from heaven

By Jay Firestone
Published on March 13, 2008

The husband from hell. The uncle from hell. The comedian from hell. Richard Lewis is fully aware he has problems. And by the end of his set, his stand-up audiences know he has problems.

Depression grips Sderot as rockets continue to fall

By Dina Kraft
Published on December 7, 2006

Sderot is far, by Israeli standards, from the country's more prosperous center. But in the last six years, it has found itself unwittingly on one of the front lines of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its location, about two miles from the Gaza border, has made Sderot an easy target for terrorists' Qassam rockets. Before a surprise and partial truce went into effect about a week ago, fighting had escalated, especially in recent months, between the Israeli army and Palestinian terrorist groups.

Scenes from 50 years of marriage

By Tom Tugend
Published on October 12, 2006

Oprah ... Shoah ... Shoah ... Oprah

By Rob Eshman
Published on January 26, 2006

This is how naive I am: I never understood why Primo Levi killed himself. I'd long admired and devoured the works of the Italian chemist who wrote of his experiences surviving the Holocaust.

Bebe and Me

By J. Keith van Straaten
Published on July 14, 2005

A lot of people my age feel pressure from their families to get married, but I think my not being married is the only thing keeping my grandmother alive. Bebe often tells me she just wants to live long enough to see my wedding. I'll say "I do" and then she'll immediately keel over. It's a lot to bear.

Bebe likes to pretend she's open-minded and doesn't care if I date non-Jewish women. I should point out that I am technically Jewish -- both my parents were born Jews. I never went to Hebrew school but we did celebrate Chanukah -- until the year we couldn't find the menorah. Then that was that: Bring on Christmas!

‘Bonkers’ Finds Humor in Hell

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on June 24, 2004

"I personally detest theater as therapy," Julianne Grossman said. "I don't want to see someone 'catharsis-izing' all over me in an attempt to heal themselves."

Helping Your Parent Defeat Depression

By Dr. Rachelle Zukerman
Published on December 18, 2003

For elderly people, mild disappointments and grief can set off depression. According to estimates from the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 750,000 older Californians suffer from depression each year. Put in another way, 50 percent of all seniors will endure a depression at some point in their later years.

Depression can affect the entire family -- but the family can also help intervene.

Prozac Jewess

By Lori Gottlieb
Published on February 20, 2003

When my therapist suggested that I consider taking antidepressants, I panicked.

Between a Couch and a Hard Place

By Carmela Ciuraru
Published on May 9, 2002

In her latest book, "The Thief of Happiness: The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy," Bonnie Friedman sorts through the complex, confusing, ambivalent relationship between therapist and patient by way of her own psychotherapy, revealing the seductive "thief" to be Friedman's trusted doctor, a fact that the reader realizes immediately, but that takes the author years to understand.

An Affair to Remember: Hollywood and the Jews

By Gene Lichtenstein
Published on March 21, 2002

Oscar night is almost upon us, and there is considerable talk (and pride) about three of the chief contenders -- Halle Berry, Will Smith and Denzel Washington -- all of whom are black. But don't be fooled: Hollywood and the film industry is still primarily a Jewish story, no matter who deserves and carts off the evening's prizes.

Spartacus’

By Tom Tugend
Published on February 7, 2002

"My Stroke of Luck" by Kirk Douglas (William Morrow, $22.95)

Five years ago, Kirk Douglas, the legendary tough guy of 84 movies, decided to end his life.

Guide for the Depressed

By Wendy J. Madnick
Published on September 13, 2001

The High Holy Days are a time for contemplation, a time to give thanks, to repent for the wrongs of the past year and seek forgiveness from those you may have hurt and especially from God.

Leading With His Left

By Ellen Jaffe-Gill
Published on April 26, 2001

Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman's art-filled home on a quiet, verdant Brentwood street is a world away from the gritty industrial world in which he lived as a child during the Depression and again as a young man on the cusp of World War II. But it's his experiences in that world of assembly-line workers that led him to the rabbinate and to his 52 years in Los Angeles.

Winona Ryder—Girl Interrupted

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on December 23, 1999

At first glance, the author Susanna Kaysen and the actress Winona Ryder have little in common. Kaysen, who is in her 50s and the author of several well-received volumes, grew up upper-middle-class and Jewish in Cambridge, MA and is the daughter of an economics professor. And Ryder, the movie star, spent many of her formative years in a Northern California commune, the daughter of a Jewish hippie intellectual who often chatted around the kitchen table with poet Allen Ginsberg and LSD guru Timothy Leary.

Singles

By Teresa Strasser
Published on May 14, 1998

I'm not mental. Really. I'm not manic-depressive,hypomanic, borderline schizophrenic or psychotic. I don't hear voicesor imagine I'm being followed by Marie Osmond. I don't have tics or acompulsive need to wash my hands or avoid cracks in thesidewalk.
Like a lot of people, I could just use someone totalk to. That's all. I figure it can't hurt.

After all, my family is like a Who's Who of mentalillness.