The invaluable Mike K

A fellow named Mike K comments at a lot of sites I frequent, including The New Neo and Maggie's Farm.  He also has a blog, A Brief History, and published a terrific memoir of his days in active medical practice, War Stories:  50 Years in Medicine.  He's in his 80s now and, although I keep hoping he'll write another book, perhaps his blog is the best I can reasonably hope for.  Still, his mother lived from 1898 to 2001, declining, he says, only in her last six months, so it's too soon to count him out.  How I wish he would commit more of his memories to print.

I've just picked up an audio version of a book he recommended, My Brother Ron, about the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill.  The recommendation occurs in his obituary for the author, which describes some of Mike K's own experience with psychotic patients during his residency.

6 comments:

Douglas2 said...

I think there might be a tiny bit of confusion here about the relationship of Dr. George Harrington to the authorhip of the book "My Brother Ron".

"My Brother Ron" is a book by Clayton Cramer.

In his review of that book, Mike K relates
"My own days with these patients were similar in many respects to Mr Cramer’s experiences with his brother, Ron."

Mike K's experiences began when he was a student doctor working at Sawtell VA hospital.

The obituary comes in because the experiences he describes in the review occurred while he was working under and supervised by "George Harrington MD, the most impressive man I have ever met in Medicine." while at Sawtell; Dr. Harrington being a pioneer in methods and practices in this area during a time of tremendous change in the way society dealt with the mentally ill.

Douglas2

Christopher B said...

Thanks for the info Douglas.

I used to read Clayton's blog pretty regularly, though he dropped off my list several years back when he stopped posting regularly for a time. My Brother Ron grew out of several posts he made detailing how his family was dealing with the issue.

He's still blogging at http://claytonecramer.blogspot.com/

Tom Bridgeland said...

So...NOT Clayton Cramer's obituary...
After reading that I immediately went to his blog to see if he is still posting.

ymarsakar said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_e6ee6isxg

A clinical therapist, I think it was called, has a good view of conspiracy vs paranoia.

Texan99 said...

Whoops, got that completely confused. Anyway, a good obit, and I'm looking forward to the book.

ymarsakar said...

I read his links on Nixon and other things. He is quite perceptive, for one of the older generation.

In my experience, the older generation believed in the fake news a little too much. TheNewNeo's comment section leans towards the older demographic.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-nixon-and-the-deep-state