Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche

June 2, 2010 was the 5th Annual Evelyn Lee Diversity and Cultural Competency Training, an annual event for all RAMS program staff (named in honor of the late Dr. Evelyn Lee, former Executive Director at RAMS).

This year, we had the honor of having esteemed author Ethan Watters as our featured presenter. His latest book is titled "Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche", which is described as revealing that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been our golden arches or our bomb craters but our bulldozing of the human psyche itself: We are in the process of homogenizing the way the world goes mad. He is also a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Discover, Men's Journal, Spin, Details, and Wired. A frequent contributor to NPR, Watters' work appeared in the 2007 and 2008 Best American Science and Nature Writing. He co-founded the San Francisco Writers Grotto, a work space for local artists.

He was a featured guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Ethan Watters
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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Click HERE for an essay written by Mr. Watters for the New York Times Magazine, titled "The Americanization of Mental Illness", which is also an excerpt from the book.

Joining him onstage was Kwong-Liem Karl Kwan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, SF State University, Dept. of Counseling, and formerly a tenured faculty in the Department of Educational Studies at Purdue University (1996-2005) and University of Missouri at Columbia (2005-2008). His research focuses on the development and assessment of counseling constructs specific to Asians and Asian Americans. Dr. Kwan is past program co-chair and conference co-chair of Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) annual conferences. Serving as the event Discussant was Alvin N. Alvarez, Ph.D., Professor, SF State University, Dept. of Counseling; Member of the RAMS Board of Directors; Past President, Asian American Psychological Association; and Co-Editor of Asian American Psychology: Current Perspectives, the first textbook written to welcome those who are new to Asian American psychology, and includes contributors from the leading experts and emerging scholars and practitioners in the field.

UPDATE:
Here's a video of Ethan Watters as a guest on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. He is joined by Dr. Salman Akhtar, who was a featured speaker at an event presented by RAMS this past November 2009.