Note: Depending on internet traffic, "loading" or "buffering" may display for some moments before video launch. If no video freeze-frames & controls appear below, OR if you cannot get them to play, double click on this link.
The following 4 interview clips courtesy of Monk Rowe & the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, 2002
Psychiatric Beginnings
Press Play To Start Video
Dual Career
Press Play To Start Video
Psychiatry
Press Play To Start Video
The Balancing Act
Press Play To Start Video
My musical career got a head start on psychiatry when at age 2, I
began climbing up on the lap of whichever parent was playing the family
Steinway, and going along for the ride. But at about the age of 7, I began
to talk with my psychiatrist uncle about his work, and became completely
fascinated. By third grade I was practicing without a license on the playground
at recess. I think the kids sensed my genuine interest and desire to help,
and they would talk with me about their lives. I soon became confident
I would be involved in this work as a career.
My parents encouraged both my medical and musical interests, never suggesting that I would have to choose just one. They were interested in psychology as well as music, and my mother had particularly astute interpersonal radar. I loved novels and short stories with psychological themes, particularly science fiction, took a lot of psychology courses as an undergraduate, and cemented my decision to become a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Jerome Frank was the head of the psychiatry department, and was my first mentor. His landmark book, "Persuasion and Healing," showed the cross-cultural commonalities involved in helping people to change psychologically, and throughout my training, I have found myself interested in psychotherapy integration — focusing on core elements in a wide range of psychotherapies.
My residency at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at the University of California in San Francisco provided these broad opportunities, which I supplemented with seminars and workshops with some important founders of different schools of psychotherapy, like Fritz Perls, Eric Berne, and Virginia Satir. I completed a personal psychoanalysis, and continued post-residency consultation with senior analysts and therapists throughout my career. I feel very fortunate to have worked closely for almost 30 years with Joseph Weiss, M.D., the founder of Control-Mastery theory, a cognitive-relational-psychodynamic theory that has greatly informed my work with individuals, couples, and groups (two of my articles can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.) Since completing my residency in 1968, I have remained active on the teaching faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, where I am Clinical Professor of Psychiatry; taught courses for other institutions; presented at regional and national conferences; and maintained a private practice of psychotherapy and consultation in San Francisco and Marin County.
I’ve been lucky to have two careers I feel so passionate about. Psychiatry never seems to become boring. Even though there are common themes often shared by a number of patients, each person’s expression and experience is unique. It is a great privilege to be trusted with a patient’s innermost thoughts and feelings — to go with them on a collaborative therapeutic journey that encourages growth. I continue to evolve and learn as part of that process.
This journey has commonalities with improvising music. Empathy and communication are paramount in both. I believe my most creative level of psychotherapy and musical expression occurs when I am able to trust that I will be able to bring to bear everything I have studied and learned while simultaneously allowing myself to temporarily “lose” my self boundaries and become “one” with the activity—to merge with the music, the musicians, or the patient and his psychological life. I’ve been fascinated with the nature and challenges of this merger state, and over the years have developed a lecture-demonstration “Unlocking the Creative Impulse: The Psychology of Improvisation.”
Read/Download: (PDF Format)
Control-Mastery Theory in Couples Therapy
Control-Mastery Theory in Group Therapy