Bits and Pieces of a Psychiatrist's Life

BITS and PIECES of a Psychiatrist's Story

This memoir is shaped after Mark Twain's idea to hit the highlights and omit tedious everyday life. Each PIECE (theme) is complemented by BITS; short stories, poems and medical essays or editorials. Born in England, Barry grew up in India during World War II; evacuated when the Japanese bombed Calcutta, he survived the German U-Boats but arrived home in time for the V 1 and V2 rockets. He spent ages 5 thru 18 in boarding schools safe from amebic dysentery and warfare. During the Korean War he was a sergeant and sanitary inspector in the Medical Corps with a motorcycle and then completed medical and psychiatric training at Cambridge University, Guys' Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry. He also moonlighted in family practice, served in a reserve Field Ambulance (every rank from private to major) and authored editorials for the Lancet. While a resident Barry explained the interaction between MAO inhibitor antidepressants and tyramine in cheese. After graduation he worked in family practice and helped develop a survey to detect psychiatric distress. In 1968 he immigrated to America, working as Director of Psychotropic Drug Research for industry before returning to academia, serving as founding Chair of psychiatry in two medical schools and as Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Behavioral Medicine. His interests are in medical education, psychopharmacology, psychosomatic medicine, patient compliance and homelessness. He is editor of five volumes and author of over 200 scientific articles.