BLOG No. TWENTY

Welcome back to my blog on anxiety and depression. We have discussed so much about type 2 dopamine elevation, I will not reiterate at this point. But instead, I would like to discuss

1) just what my credentials are & 2) why you should believe anything I say?

Well, for starters, I am a family physician who pays close attention to everything. Certainly that is worth something. Just ask Flaubert.

Flau—who? Flaubert...Gustave Flaubert, to be exact. And why would I drag you back into 19th-century French literature to help you understand anxiety and depression? There is a reason. There is always a method to my madness.

Gustave Flaubert, as some of you may know, wrote Madame Bovary. This novel, circa 1850’s, was so racy that the French authorities tried to prosecute him for literary pornography. In the end, he won out and was not prosecuted. The novel is still available to this day.

Why would I mention this? Well, Flaubert’s Madame Bovary it’s one of the greatest novels in the history of literature. He tells the story of Emma Bovary, a beautiful woman married to a doctor. She spends her days reading romantic novels. When she becomes bored with her husband, she has several affairs. What’s interesting about this novel is Flaubert’s description of her eyes. Her eyes start out black, then mid-novel become brown, and later become blue. Hummmm. How does the greatest novelist in French literature have the main character’s eyes changing multiple times?

A critic at the time, Dr. Enid Starkie, ripped Flaubert in her critique like feathers from a chicken. But yet, the novel still sells. Why? Was Flaubert really that sloppy? Maybe. But many say that the color of the eyes changed depending on who viewed them—Flaubert knew what he was doing.

Flaubert was the grand master of obsessive writing. Would he really have made such a silly mistake? And what the hell does that have to do with anxiety and depression? Well I mention it because just as the critic did not really know Flaubert, you really don’t know me. How do you trust a doctor that you do not know, and his blogs? For Flaubert, he really didn’t care what his critics thought. And there were a lot of critics.

Flaubert had confidence in his writing. He obsessed over every chapter, every paragraph, and every word. It took him five years to write Madame Bovary. Some writers crank out one to two novels every year, but that wasn’t his style. Yes, he had critics, but Flaubert didn’t care. He knew he was a good writer and didn’t let the critics bother him.

And I know I will have my critics. And like Flaubert, I don’t care. I have done my own psychiatry for over 20 years. Yes, it was a bit difficult at first, but I had the good fortune of training with some phenomenal psychiatrists around the country, all of which were on the cutting edge of psychiatry.

The skills that I learned, I applied in my own practice, adjusting to how each patient responded to their therapy. And I also kept up with new medicines as they became available. When on the rare occasion that I struggled with a particular case, I would refer them to a local psychiatrist who I trusted. And when she sent the patient back to me, completely better, I would study her approach, and learn something.

So, like Flaubert, I have confidence in what I do and teach in psychiatry, because I am obsessed over it the way Flaubert obsessed over his novels.

And I am also confident because all of my patients get—not only better, but well.

Oh, and I never practice medicine while drinking Chardonnay! So, until next time when we discuss more clinical cases, this is Dr. G saying keep the faith.