Charles Silberstein with Laura Roosevelt
Vote no on Question 4, promoting psychedelic use
I am a believer in the power of certain psychedelic medications to help depression, awaken spiritual experiences, and break damaging compulsive behaviors such as...
On My Mind: Finding the unexpected
Fred Waitzkin, part-time Islander and author of “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” told me that for years he had been “oblivious to homeless people. They...
On My Mind: Thankful
It had been a month since I’d cantered through the hills and fields astride Tex — a giant, almost black Percheron. Over many years,...
On My Mind: Writer’s pause, a.k.a. writer’s block
In “The Book of Two Ways,” Jodi Picault writes that people are artists because “there’s something inside you that you can’t keep from spilling...
On My Mind: Beyond traditional talk therapy
In good psychotherapy, we feel listened to, understood without judgment, and cared for. In doing so, it helps us feel safer, kinder, wiser, and...
On My Mind: The psychology of violence
At 86, psychiatrist and part-time Vineyarder James Gilligan just published his eighth book, “Holding a Mirror Up to Nature: Shame, Guilt, and Violence in...
Statistics show Island’s challenges with SUD
Drug and alcohol abuse on Martha’s Vineyard is more prevalent than it is in most of the rest of the country. According to the...
On My Mind: A safe harbor in a storm
Imagine a young Islander whom I will call Becca. She was stationed in Afghanistan, saw her buddies killed, one right next to her. On...
On My Mind: A newfound awareness of death
“Charlie, you have had several near-death experiences. When that happens, you come back reborn. You are a different person. You need to re-establish your...
On my mind: Being a hospital patient
Last month, I had a middle-of-the-night dream that turned out to be prophetic: there was an intruder in my house, and he wanted to...
On My Mind: Friendship
Most people think of loneliness as a painful state of mind. They may not realize that it is also bad for one’s health. Loneliness...
On my mind: Secrets
Though she kept it a secret from her mother and grandparents, on a typical night, a 17-year-old Martha’s Vineyard High School student was a...
On My Mind: Children of alcoholics and dysfunctional families
Tolstoy famously wrote that “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” No doubt each troubled family is...
On My Mind: Why I have changed my byline
My wife approached me as I was dressing for work, and told me that she thought it was time that she give up the...