Blog | Paul R. Puri, MD

Digesting Hannibal – Season 1, Ep5

Episode 5 – Coquilles We open with Will walking barefoot down a two-lane highway, in only his underwear. The stag walks behind him. He’s sleepwalking. A police car pulls up to him and the two officers question him. He doesn’t know where he is, and still isn’t sure he’s really awake. This tells us Will questions his own reality. This doesn’t quite reach the point of Zhuangzi, but there’s clearly a similarity. Will visits Hannibal in his home, early the next morning. Hannibal remarks that sleepwalking is less common in adults than children. True. Will wonders if it could

Digesting Hannibal – Season 1, Ep4

Episode 4 – Ouef Warning: Wasn’t a big fan of the episode from a psych perspective, and may have vented a little. We start with Will and Hannibal in therapy. Will describes his house, and seeing it from a distance. “It’s really the only time I feel safe.” Hannibal pivots this to thinking about Hobbs and how Will knew him. “Like a bloodhound.” Will discloses that he tried very hard to understand him. Hannibal furthers this to exploring how Will felt about finding the body of Marissa. Will admits that he felt guilty, “because I felt like I killed her.” Here

Digesting Hannibal – Season 1, Ep3

Episode 3 – Potage We open with Garrett Jacob Hobbs and Abigail Hobbs observing a deer. They’re hunting together. She misses the first time, but succeeds the second. Yet she’s distressed over killing it. She’s internally conflicted about killing, while her father is happy. She tells her father about how amazing deers are supposed to be, with regret. Her father one-ups her on each statement; they’re still beautiful and smart, even in death. He has the plan to “honor her” and use all of her parts, but have his daughter do the cutting with a knife. She’s distressed. He’s desensitizing

Digesting Hannibal – Season 1, Ep2

Episode 2 – Amuse-Bouche We open on bullet shells hitting the ground. Will at the firing range. He’s haunted by Garrett Jacob Hobbs. Even in his dreams. He awakens to entering a crime scene with Jack, the attic of Hobbs, filled with mounted antlers. Jack maintains that his daughter, Abigail, could be an accomplice in the prior murders. “Hobbs killed alone.” As usual, Will is very certain. But someone else was there in that attic. Someone with red hair. We meet FREDDIE LOUNDS, an online tabloid reporter. Will stands in his classroom teaching his students. And yet he is still

Digesting Hannibal – Season 1, Ep1

Episode 1 – Apertif We begin with a murder scene. A man and a woman killed. We meet WILL GRAHAM, an FBI teacher and profiler. He’s assessing the scene, and through a metronome device we watch time rewind to before the murder. Will has the ability to imagine himself in the killer’s place, conducting the murder himself, and understand the murder through this process. We watch him kill the couple, and learn about the killer in the process. The story cuts to him lecturing a class on the murder. He’s approached by JACK CRAWFORD, the head of the Behavioral Science unit (think

Perspective on Eating and Overeating

Overeating permeates our society. At the holidays, but really all year long. The strategies that spring up, such as calorie or portion control, weight watchers, focus on an external system. Eating healthier is also important. I’ll admit I have binged on some ice cream now and again as well. Other wisdom about eating tells us that sometimes we’re eating for comfort, for distraction, or mindlessly (while watching TV), or out of boredom. Of course we are. That doesn’t quite tell us the how to eat differently, though. Aside from maybe not while watching TV. I was in the middle of

Fear of Mental Illness

The fear behind mental illness reflects the nature of fear itself: We fear what we don’t know. We can never truly know what is happening inside the mind of another person. We as people follow fixed rules most of the time. Drive through an intersection when the light is green. Wear some amount of clothing outdoors. Don’t cross the double yellow line. So many rules. When rules are broken, it is jarring to us as bystanders. Perhaps that rule breaker is innovative. Perhaps that rule breaker is a genius. Or perhaps that rule breaker is sick. The more bizarre the

Positive Psychology, Lindsay Doran, and Story

Many months ago I attended a lecture by Lindsay Doran on Psychology as an approach to understanding story. It was hosted by the Blacklist. For anyone interested, her Ted Talk covers much of the same material. Ms. Doran is a studio executive that has helped in the development of a number of films, including recently The Lego Movie. She also has a fondness for Positive Psychology. For those not familiar, the wiki page is actually pretty good on the subject. In short, it’s an approach to human psychology that focuses on the positive side of functioning, such as how to

Haystacks: How to Improve EHR and the Healthcare System

I woke up today to a request on LinkedIn from someone at Harvard for a healthcare startup that seemed on its surface anything but innovative. The only interesting thing about it was the word “Harvard.” Another “me too” wellness program. I declined and went on to click on a story in the NY Times about Tim Cook, and how he’s shaping Apple and maybe moving into some more healthcare applications. I flashed back to 5 years ago (2009). I was a resident and could see so many problems with the healthcare system, including the attempts at creating a good Electronic

Your Partnership is a Fantasy

Yes, I’m being dramatic and the title probably borders on clickbait. And yet it’s true. When I refer to partnership, I mean the idea that two people join equally at all times, make decisions equally in all things, and that no one ever dominates. It’s a beautiful utopian idea, post-modern gender roles, where neither “partner” does more than the other. It just doesn’t exist in reality. For the purposes of illustration, I write about roles here in a heterosexual male/female relationship, though this is all easily applicable to same-sex couples. Perhaps there are moments when two people are in absolute