C. Thomas Gualtieri

Tom Gualtieri is a neuropsychiatrist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is a physician who sees patients with the conditions he writes about. He was educated at Columbia, McGill and then at UNC. He continues to publish in medical journals. He (I) wrote this for his 50th medical school anniversary:

“I left New York for a surgical residency in Montréal, but I left a year later to do National Service. They had no spots in Viet Nam that year, so they sent to the next worst place, Mound Bayou, Mississippi. I spent three years as a family doc and delivered 500 babies, but I lost my zeal for any specialty that might keep me up at night. I also found a new interest in psychopharmacology, and I found that I loved the South, so I went to Chapel Hill for my training. I spent ten years on the faculty at UNC, supported by soft money and studying child development, neuropsychiatry and psychopharm. In 1988, I got a real job and we started North Carolina Neuropsychiatry. I still work full time and without restrictions. I see patients with learning disabilities and autism, complicated psychiatric disorders, brain injuries and early dementia. I continue to do research and write. We have developed a battery of computerized neurocognitive tests that we use clinically and that are also used in pharmaceutical research.

“I married Frances in 1977 and we had three boys. Since we obviously couldn’t engender female children, we adopted Geni from China in 1997, then Nora in 2001 and Dia in 2005. Dieter and John run my wife’s restaurant, La Résidence, and she works there, too, when she isn’t taking care of the grandchildren. If you bring a copy of one of my books when you eat there, they will give you a free desert.

“I had mixed feelings about medicine when I came to P&S; I wanted to be a writer. The problem was, I didn’t have anything to write about. Now I do. I wrote two monographs in neuropsychiatry that went straight from production to the rare book shelves. Undeterred, now I write for general readers. The OCD of Everyday Life was published this year; read it and buy one for all of the OC’s in your life. Right now, he is working on Why We Live As Long As We Do.

“Writing is not an addiction but it’s my indoor hobby; Frances makes me grow flowers for her restaurant – I have good luck with dahlias and zinnias – and when she leaves me alone I work on old cars.”

TG’s books have been described as ‘turgid’, his insights as ‘superficial’ and his theories, ‘not even wrong’. But they are the only brain books that will make you laugh out loud.