I may be targeting too many markets. This book is for mental health experts, victims of depression, aviators, the FAA, Yale University, engineers, physicists, and computer scientists. It is an explanation to those I’ve known and worked with on what happened to me and why. There is a lot of technical content. My story is one of intense interest in
engineering, physics, and technology. The interest in mental health is secondary, something forced upon me. I wouldn’t give it a second thought if it were not holding me back. For those not interested in the technology, skip over those parts if it’s tough going. Not that much will be lost. You might want to make some effort, however. There are things to wonder about, like infinite series and random numbers. I would hope that everyone would come out knowing what a laser is. Lasers paid my mortgage and put my kids through school. Lasers are central to the last 40 years of my life.
I have been denied an aviation medical certificate, needed to fly light airplanes, due to mental health issues. This is something I cannot reverse in the legal system as currently configured. To pursue this, I could pay a lawyer to lose the case in court or write this book and get paid for it. Public opinion cannot win this fight, but I am interested in what the public opinion actually is. I already know the FAA’s. My goals have become loftier than flying airplanes. Whether I ever fly solo is secondary to challenging policy.
I skirt the edges of braggadocio and tiresome, self-aggrandizing nerdom with a purpose. I toot my own horn to contrast myself with the FAA’s view that I’m a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic. Hopefully, also recounting my failures makes all of this more palatable. The opinions of the FAA and Yale University are published in full in Appendix A. I am hoping that every psychiatrist in America will see what a diagnostic evisceration looks like.
Today I think of myself as a success, despite the ups and downs. And you have to have a healthy self-image to write a memoir with no really grand, public accomplishments to point to. I’ve led a charmed life, despite the setbacks. I hope that a core of optimism over my neurochemically induced pessimism shows through.
Can’t Be Trusted can be purchased in paperback or electronic formats at Amazon.com.
Bart can be reached at Bart@CantBeTrusted.org.
