Profoundly concerned about my future in Montreal, in the predominantly French province of Quebec, I accepted a job in Philadelphia. I quit my job (as a Pediatric Urologist) in Montreal, sold my home, was prepared to leave family and friends behind and move with my wife and three young children to another city, in another country, where I knew no one. The resultant psychic trauma was intensified by the lack of a financial security net should it not work out. This was sufficient to drive me to seek psychiatric help. It was my great fortune to be directed to see Dr. Habib Davanloo and benefit from his technique entitled “Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy” (ISTDP). In just 10 weekly sessions I was “cured” of my apprehension along with relief of several other issues (including a pathological fear of flying) thrown in for good measure. This life-altering event was the incentive for the development of my interest in neurosis, in general and ISTDP, in particular. Following extensive reading on the subjects and reflection on personal and professional experience I was motivated to write a book entitled “Neurosis Revealed: The illness we all have, but know little or nothing about”. The book is written in lay language and covers incidence, cause, signs and symptoms, treatment and prevention of both neurosis and psychosis, the two mental illnesses that could not be more different. The emphasis is on neurosis with an outline of psychosis, so as to allow for a distinguishing of the difference between the two.     

B.Sc. McGill University Montreal 1955
M.D. University of Toronto 1959
M.Sc. McGill University 1964
MacLauchlan Travelling Fellowship
Hospital for Sick Children… London, England… July 1966-December 1966
Karolinska Institute… Stockholm, Sweden… January 1967-June 1967
Practice of Pediatric Urology
Montreal Children’s Hospital… July 1967-December 1978
St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children Philadelphia PA… January 1979-July 2005
Retired… July 2005 to present.

Neurosis is a real word (with no synonym) for a real illness, yet it is rejected, for different reasons, by both the public at large and the Health Care professional (psychiatrist, clinical psychologist and social worker). The public reject it because it is dripping with stigma, "put offish", medical sounding and rhymes with "necrosis" (decaying flesh). The health care professional has declared it "outmoded" and have in fact dropped the word (without replacement) in 2008 from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) for Mental Diseases. My choice of the title "Neurosis Revealed" is regrettable. I am fishing with a naked hook.