John Gartner, Ph.D.
is a psychologist and author living in Baltimore. He can be contacted at:
jg@johngartner.com
John Gartner now writes a regular blog at Psychology Today. To visit the blog click here. You may also visit his other blog at The Hypomanic Edge.
Therapy
I've been practicing psychotherapy and teaching psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins University Medical School for over twenty years. My two areas of specialization are Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Bipolar Disorder, though I treat more common ailments such as depression and anxiety as well in a general psychotherapy practice in Baltimore.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Borderlines have problems with impulsivity, mood swings, unstable relationships, and self destructive behaviors. Despite the seriousness of the condition, contrary to the stereotype, BPD is treatable, and I've had good outcomes in the vast majority of cases. It's intensive long term work, but with a properly trained therapist and a motivated patient the prognosis is good. In 1987, I completed a two year post-doctoral fellowship at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical in treatment of BPD working under the renowned Otto Kernberg, whose work helped define the disorder. While Kernberg's work emphasizes interpreting underlying psychodynamics and limit setting, in more recent years, I've been strongly influenced by Marsha Linehan's Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), with its emphasis on meditation, the cultivation of mindfulness, and learning of skills to manage emotional volatility.
Bipolar Disorder
While I treat all forms of bipolar disorder, I have a particular interest in hypomania, a mildly manic temperament often found among highly creative people. My book,
The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a lot of) Success in America, which links hypomania to both success and the American temperament was named by the
New York Times Sunday Magazine year in ideas issue as one of the most innovative and important new ideas of 2005. In my second book,
In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography, named one of the best biographies of 2008 by
Booklist, official publication of the American Library Association, I present Bill Clinton as a case study in hypomania. In my work with hypomanics I emphasize how to gain self control while at the same time not losing one's creative spark, working to capitalize on hypomania’s strengths such as energy, drive, creativity, confidence and charisma, while also guarding against it’s liabilities such as arrogance, impatience, irritability and impulsivity. The cultivation of mindfulness helps the hypomanic slow things down enough so that they can make better judgments and choices, and increase their empathy for how others experience them, and protect their relationships from being damaged.
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In Search of Bill Clinton:
A Psychological Biography
What makes Bill Clinton tick? WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, the forty- second President of the United States, is the greatest American enigma of our age—a dark horse who Captured the White House, fell from grace, and was resurrected as a controversial elder statesman. John D. Gartner’s In Search of Bill Clinton unravels the mystery at the heart of Clinton’s complex nature and tells the story from the fresh viewpoint of a psychologist questioning the well-crafted Clinton life story.
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The Hypomanic Edge:
The Link Between (a Little) Craziness
And (a Lot) of Success in America
America has an extraordinarily high number of hypomanics—grandiose types who leap on every wacky idea that occurs to them, utterly convinced it will change the world. Americans may have a lot of crazy ideas, but some of them prove to be brilliant inventions.
VISIT THE HYPOMANIC EDGE SITE