Do you think jumping on the couch was his way of getting his mother's attention when he was a wee tot? I mean, you have to draw *some* connection between the highly-regarded-in-his-field Dr. Drew and the highly-regarded-in-his-field Tom Cruise.

As for your book, Liz: you now have the street cred to pull it off. You have your own following comprised of people who follow you and care for you, media exposure in the NYT, and this blog which you keep fresh. Troll an outline around and see what kind of nibbles you get from agents. Give Terry Gross a call.

If you want start with a smaller (that is, a regional) market, the people at KPCC's (Pasadena, CA - largest listener base of any public radio station in the LA media market) Air Talk do great issues radio every day. Patt Morrison is a fine journalist. LA is also very receptive to mental health issues now that Steve Lopez's movie is about to be released (how a columnist/investigative journalist got an unmedicated prodigy off the streets and into assistance).

Keep up the good work.

I am not a lover of Drew Pinksy but I do agree w/him re Tom Cruise & the Scientology Movement. Tom has been projecting a pretty creepy aura in the last year or so. He has been very egocentric, and while he accuses Pinksy of dx'ing him w/out a proper consult; Tom has no problem ranting & raving about his peers, like Brooke Shields who have publicly acknowleged being in therapy or helped by therapy.

I have read that Tom was severely dyslexic. Some people are able to overcome this reading disorder, and others never really learn to read well or be comfortable with reading. I can see that if somebody does not read well, they are vulnerable to making poor decisions for themselves. They are not able to research religious arguments ie. think in a critical, objective manner. I do agree w/Dr. Pinsky that it is likely Tom could have been neglected, his parents were divoriced and as a child he was not a good student. A poor reader.

What a pain in the rear that Mr. Cruise is. I wish he would just stick to entertainment and exercise his relgion in private.

That might be the only thing, or one of a very short list, that offends me deeply enough to want to get in a fight with someone. Especially when it's followed by something like "get over it and get a job, you lazy bum". Someone attacks my political, religious or philosophical views, or my taste in music or film, that's fine. But when someone denies the very existence of mental illness...

Also, Dr. Pinsky said "much of it is based on childhood trauma". A lot of my own mental woes are brought on by things I endured in childhood, plus the fact that mental illness runs in my family. People don't need to be reading that as "most of it" or "all of it".

Whatever one thinks of Tom Cruise, it is unethical for any psychiatrist to diagnose someone who is not his patient and has not asked for his services. It is a violation of the Goldwater rule. If this psychiatrist is a member of the APA, he should be reported for ethics violations. You know, you don't see oncologists speculating about cancer diagnoses of famous people who aren't their patients, neither should psychiatrists.

I have written about the Scientologists and Tom Cruise myself. In researching them, I found out at Wikipedia that they believe psychiatry to be the blame for a whole host of problems. They think that the wars in Bosnia and Kosavo, 9/11, Hitler and the decline in standards of education are all due to psychiatry. They have a dedicated anti-psychiatry movement, complete with a museum. You can see a bit of this at: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientlogy_and_psychiatry.
They are dangerous and deluded people, who make it their business to try and stop a practice that is intended to end the suffering of countless people. Psychiatry has a long way to go, but as a Manic-Depressive, I don't want a group of people who base their beliefs on a criminal Science-Fiction writer messing with my mental health care!

If Hubbard wasn't joking when he created his theology, he was quite certainly full blown manic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenu

Being obnoxious in public is not by itself a crime, and I think we need to remember that if opinions like those of Tom Cruise are stifled because they seem outrageous then that may lead someday to our own opinions being stifled for the same reason. Although I understand that Scientologists can sometimes be quite intimidating, as far as I know they don't have the legal power to force their beliefs on anyone. No matter how many outrageous claims they may make, they don't have the power that psychiatry does to force anyone to be involved in their rituals. I would like to hear more about that Goldwater rule, and whether or not it is ever applied to Dr. Pinsky.