Bipolar disorder An article by David Mintz, M.D.
Bipolar disorder, also called manic-depressive illness, is a serious mood disorder characterized by wide swings in mood, energy and activity levels. Though most patients with bipolar disorder experience depressions as a part of their illness, a manic, hypomanic, or mixed-manic episode is required to make the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Dr. David Mintz is a board certified staff psychiatrist, Director of Residency Training, and Director of Continuing Medical Education at the Austen Riggs Center. He also directs the Elective in Psychodynamic Psychiatry for medical students and visiting residents. He has published and presented on a wide variety of topics, with a current focus on psychodynamic aspects of medical education, clinical care of psychiatric patients with treatment refractory conditions, and psychological aspects of taking and prescribing medications. In this piece, Dr. Mintz gives an extensive explanation of bipolar disorder and treatment.

Borderline Personality Disorder An interview with M. Gerard Fromm, Ph.D.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a psychiatric condition characterized by unstable sense of self, rollercoasters of emotion and behavior, and difficulty relating to other people in an intimate way. People diagnosed with BPD often experience a range of symptoms — including depressions, anxiety, obsessions, fear, and loneliness — to a degree that their minds, and lives, can be at serious risk. Indeed, the term itself originally alluded to the “border” between neurosis (the mental challenges faced, for example, by people suffering with anxiety and internal conflict) and psychosis (that is, a departure from generally accepted reality).

Dr. Gerard Fromm, a member of the clinical staff at the Austen Riggs Center, and director of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research, is an authority on BPD. What follows is a conversation with Dr. Fromm on this troubling condition, how it manifests itself, and the treatment approach taken by the staff and community at the Austen Riggs Center.

Major Depression: An Interview with Eric M. Plakun, M.D.
Depression accounts for a huge amount of lost time at work, impairment of quality of life, and often leads to death, because it is significantly associated with risk of suicide. In this extensive interview, Dr. Plakun, , director of admissions and professional relations at Riggs, and a national spokesperson on psychotherapy, describes in detail major depression--an affliction that affects the majority of Riggs patients.

On Trauma: A Conversation with Virginia Demos, Ed.D.
Dr. E. Virginia Demos is a member of the Austen Riggs Center therapy staff and is a past Erikson Scholar. An authority on trauma, Dr. Demos is a clinical and developmental psychologist, infant researcher and teacher, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She was also the director of a private psychotherapy clinic in Boston. Dr. Demos has published over 20 articles and book chapters on affective development in early childhood and the central role of affect in shaping psychic organization. She has also edited a book entitled "Exploring Affects: The Selected Writings of Silvan S. Tomkins". She has received several research fellowships and is a founding member of the International Society for Research in Emotion (ISRE).

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Conversation with Christina Biedermann, Psy.D.
Dr. Christina Biedermann, a psychology fellow at the Austen Riggs Center, is an authority on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Trained as a clinical psychologist, she has worked with patients diagnosed with PTSD at the Victims of Violence Program at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School and at the Northampton Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center. Currently, she treats and evaluates PTSD both in her work at Riggs and in her private practice with veterans and persons seeking asylum.