The Brad Pitt Of Psychiatry

OK, this is so classic, I'll just quote the first few grafs of the New York Times article and let you read the rest.

"The two prominent psychiatrists clashed frequently over small details and big money, over research priorities and ethics, and in the end Columbia University’s child psychiatry department was not big enough to hold both of them, colleagues said.

"Now, one psychiatrist is suing the university for wrongful termination and charging that the other engineered his ouster in a Machiavellian plot that went on for years.

"In the suit, filed last week in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Dr. Peter Jensen, formerly the director of the Ruane Center for the Advancement of Children’s Mental Health at Columbia, contends that after he was hired by the university in 1999, Dr. David Shaffer, director of the university’s child psychiatry division, continually undermined his work. By making derogatory comments and subjecting Dr. Jensen’s work to unfair scrutiny, the lawsuit says, Dr. Shaffer helped force Dr. Jensen out of his job.

"Dr. Jensen — who said that, among other things, Dr. Shaffer had called him “the Brad Pitt of psychiatry” — is seeking about $15 million in damages from the university."

Absolutely wonderful. And these are the babies who are putting together the new DSM and reshaping child psychiatry?

BTW, Shaffer is the head of the famous, or infamous, TeenScreen project.