Martin Kantor

Kantor's objective in this book is to help Washington, the Veterans Administration (VA) staff, the vets themselves, and the general public understand the shortcomings of VA medicine today beyond what they read in the newspapers, so that all concerned can chip in to help improve the medical care that all the vets, and not just those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, are receiving. He reveals exactly how everyone—Washington, veterans, advocacy groups, the various members of the VA staff (including the doctors), the nonmedical and medical administration, the clerks and the rest of the ancillary staff, and the vets themselves—are all together responsible for the breakdown of the system, as he argues that all contribute a share to creating that endpoint: a severe state of havoc with the vets' medical care.Kantor goes on to describe some of the signature illnesses from which vets suffer, and in the process pinpoints exactly how the system specifically manages to mismanage these ailments, making already serious medical problems even worse. In addition, the author envisions a more ideal VA of the future, bringing forth specific improvements that will assure its implementation. The book concludes with a description of the more positive aspects of the system, offering a platform upon which meaningful reforms can be built.

Depression in men often goes undiagnosed or improperly treated because of unique qualities that make it different from depression in women. In this volume, Dr. Kantor explains that depression in men is not strictly the product of major life events; it also regularly appears in response to minor troubling issues that often go entirely overlooked by others or, if recognized at all, are downplayed. In this jargon-free text, Kantor explains how many men are able to navigate the big stresses successfully only to succumb to the little ones. And he challenges the current widespread tendency now viewing depression in men as a strictly biological event to be treated first and foremost with pharmaceuticals.Psychiatrist Martin Kantor takes us into his treatment rooms and daily experience to show the signs and causes of depression in men, and how they do not display the disorder most often in the way we typically associate with depression. Many men who feel depressed deny it by shifting into hypomania. Trying to hide, reject or downplay the feeling, they may become excessively elated, have a decreased need for sleep, find their thoughts racing and their sexual desire fueled out of control. Where there was, initially with depression, a withdrawal and a desire to weep, then enters attention-seeking behavior, clowning and flighty energy, explains Kantor. That makes the depression far more difficult for laypeople and professionals—even for the men themselves—to recognize and deal with. That is unfortunate because a small amount of medical attention and personal affection can work wonders, rechanneling the man into a life of happiness he might never have known, and a level of achievement he might never othewise have attained, says KantorLong thought to be a feminine disorder connected to hormones and the premenstrual syndrome, depression actually strikes millions of men each year. With absorbing vignettes, and insights into a faulty culture that urges men to always have a stiff upper lip and shun medical attention, Dr. Kantor shows the unique ways in which depression is very much a men's disorder. And he helps us understand what we can do to treat it, to help ourselves and the men we care about recover.

Emotional problems do not discriminate according to sexual orientation. Therefore, gay men have the same emotional difficulties as everyone else. When emotional problems in gay men are viewed solely as the product of sociopolitical events, it limits the therapeutic intervention to correction. Dr. Kantor asserts that the gay-aware supportive therapist can treat the emotional problem with a positive result by meeting the needs of the individual patient with a diagnosis-based treatment approach.Supportive psychotherapy for gay men with emotional problems can eliminate a broad range of emotional difficulties that are not exclusive to gay men. It shows therapists how psychological problems can be buried in a gay context and guides them to recognition and dynamic evaluation that forms the basis of a treatment plan that is simultaneously affirmative, supportive, and corrective.

The new federal guidelines to help employers understand how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to employees with an emotional disorder make it imperative that occupational psychologists and front line managers identify those workers who have an emotional disorder and distinguish them from those workers who are lazy or have a bad attitude. Kantor provides vital clinical information that assists professional consultants and supervisors alike in complying with the new guidelines while distinguishing true disability from behavioral problems which call for administrative action. Avoiding stress-heavy theory and one-size-fits-all approaches to treating occupational disorders, Kantor provides a comprehensive view of factors contributing to workplace traumas and presents an incremental approach to developing correct disgnoses and effective clinical therapies. Kantor describes both the familiar and the less familiar occupational disorders, shows how they develop as a result of dysfunctional interaction between workers and their environment, and suggests case-specific methods for preventing and curing many of the most debilitating workplace traumas.Avoiding stress-heavy theory and one-size-fits-all approaches to treating occupational disorders, the author here provides a comprehensive view of factors contributing to workplace traumas and presents an incremental approach to developing effective clinical therapies. Kantor describes both the familiar and the less familiar occupational disorders, shows how they develop as a result of dysfunctional interaction between workers and their environment, and suggests case-specific methods for preventing and curing many of the most debilitating workplace traumas.

This book describes the depressive in his or her natural habitat, studies the everyday problems that cause one's depression, and develops treatment approaches directed to the depressive's real-world plight. It explores the borderland between the sacred and the profane, the academic and the popular, the scientific but impractical, and the practical but unscientific. It relies as much on common sense, anecdote, and individual insight as it does on case histories and psychological test protocol.The book is divided into four sections: description, cause, prevention, and treatment. The descriptive section presents the mental-status abnormalities in depression, includes a differential diagnosis of classic depressive symptoms, indicates when so-called classic symptoms of another disorder are in fact depressive, lists the physical complaints that are the product of depression, discusses normal depression, and touches briefly on hypomania. The section on cause recognizes that real troubles are common and chemical troubles rare. It suggests that people do not get depressed because they are under stress or they have suffered loss, but, in simple language, because their boss has threatened to fire them, their wife has threatened to leave, the cat has died, and other similar real-life difficulties. It faces the problems that therapists and patients alike find unpalatable, shameful, and threatening--the things that cause patients to close their eyes or speak in remote euphemisms. The sections on prevention and therapy are not attached to any one school of thought. They are formulated and expressed simply and humanistically, and offer common-sense solutions to the depressives's everyday problems with themselves and their world.

Problems and Solutions is a concise guide for beginning psychotherapists who have mastered basic theory and technique and are now preparing to run psychotherapy sessions. It has one simple premise: a direct and clear therapist will have a more positive impact on a patient. Finding that equilibrium between theory and practice, Martin Kantor uses a practical no-nonsense approach to identify specific therapeutic problems and offer effective, doable solutions. Problems are those faced by all therapists and solutions, while very specific, are not bound to any particular school of thought and easily adaptable to different psychotherapies. Word-by-word emphasis is placed on what to say as well as what not to say. Specific guidance is given on handling symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, and obsessions. Geared to beginning psychotherapists, Problems and Solutions also offers the advanced therapist an opportunity to reflect on his/her ingrained notions and habits.With more than twenty years of experience in training psychotherapists, Dr. Kantor has written a guide that is both unique and inviting. He offers problem/solution guidance in an elementary and concrete form. His intent is the development of a therapy technique which is direct, open, and understandable. Kantor covers: patient selection, disorder detection and diagnosis, treatment goals, advantages and disadvantages of different treatment modes, technical proficiency, long term therapy, defense mechanisms, transference and countertransference. He also gives extensive attention to the avoidance of common therapeutic errors and the treatment of special situations, such as schizophrenia, specific age groups, and symptoms with a physical caste. Time is also given to basic questions such as the length and frequency of sessions, fees, and office appearance.