Academic Psychiatry

As we become a more global community, we feel the impact of crises such as war and natural disaster in a more immediate way. The 2010 earthquake in Haiti highlighted the acute and chronic conditions that need to be addressed by physicians in all specialties. The authors describe the need for and logistics of programs in global mental health (GMH) training in the context of a proposed International Service Corps for Health, a U.S. health-diplomacy initiative. The programs would run for 1-or-more years and would include a placement in a low-to-middle-income country where the need and relevancy are greatest.

The author gives a meaningful and personal account of his residency placement in Osaka, Japan, in 2006. Although this was not a placement in an impoverished area, the difficulties encountered here are very relevant for any potential resident contemplating such an experience. Dr. Ballas stresses the accommodations that had to be made by his host country, providing translators, guides, and "facilitators" in the form of mentors and peers. In light of this hospitality, the foreign resident has a responsibility to live up to cultural and professional expectations and also to realize that information can and should be exchanged in both directions.

In the last two decades, there has been increasing recognition of the influence of popular culture on collective consciousness. Here, the authors, Milone and Gabbard, explore the impact of the "vampire" franchise (for example, the Twilight series, grossing more than $350 million worldwide) and how it has yielded classic images and psychological archetypes. These classic images: the "bad-boy" appeal to women; the association of sex, danger, and death; the forbidden "other;" along with, ironically, the fantasy of the perfect/forever relationship, with the mixing of blood, provide a motivational substrate for therapeutic and literary insight.