David Scott May – 50th Reunion Essay

David Scott May

45 Elm Avenue

Mill Valley, California 94941

davidscottmay@mac.com

415-755-7399

Spouse(s): Roxanne Davis (2004)

Child(ren): Savannah Leigh (2006); Daniel Sequoia (2006)

Education: UCSF MD 1978, Psychiatry UCLA/Stanford 1981/Child Psychiatry UCLA 1983

Career: Child and Adult Psychiatrist 40 years

Avocations: Ecopsychiatry and the Wilderness, Healing the body, psyche and the soul

College: Ezra Stiles

Stayed in New Haven five years teaching second grade and then teaching photography and videography at Yale Psychiatric Institute; went to medical school in San Francisco; became a child psychiatrist; joined clinical faculty at UCLA in 1983. Focus: meditation and healing, biofeedback, Carl Jung, medical student well-being, films of seminal thinkers in psychology, ecopsychiatry, treatment of ADD, use of empathogens for psychological growth.

Married the lovely Roxanne (painter and therapist) in 2004 at 58, had twins: now 12: Savannah (budding scientist) and Daniel (hopeful astronaut-politician); planted 400 trees on three acres of land in side canyon of LA; rafted and kayaked most of the rivers of the west and hiked the mountains of the western US, Europe, and Nepal. Left the traffic-crazed, appearance-driven, culturally rich LA for the mostly bucolic, subtle appearance-driven, somewhat ecologically conscious Mill Valley (north of San Francisco) in 2009.

Went to Russia in summer 1968 to study with Len Hill (’69), thrown in jail, met Jewish refuseniks, trapped in Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, tried to help early love escape from East Germany in ’70s. Resisted the war in Vietnam; lived in commune in Milford while classmates were getting PhDs; intrigued by counter-culture options, the potential of altered states and their effects on the body. Decided was more likely to have some impact with chances to implement my notions of societal cures if I had social credential, i.e., medical school.

Always been lucky, some would say charmed existence. For the most part I enjoyed high school in LA, years at Yale, later days in New Haven, medical school in San Francisco, free-spirited life in LA, fatherhood in Mill Valley. Interesting and varied family of origin with 97-year-old father: entrepreneur, professor; 94-year-old mother: president of PTAs and League of Women voters; CPA brother; artist, astrologer sister in Big Sur; healer brother and founder of Pure Synergy food supplements in Moab, Utah. I feel very fortunate that I have always had a physical vitality and optimistic view of what life was going to bring.

Some suffering with existential questions about why and what, a range of autoimmune conditions that occasionally hammer me but I always recover, minor obsession with the Holocaust, the struggle for gun control and nuclear annihilation.

Given what I have seen in 40 years of working with patients and having many diverse experiences in life, I have a growing suspicion I have a book in me that I need to write. It is about the inner life of males and how through psychotherapy or deep immersion in nature or spiritual practices our early narratives of what it means to be a man can be expanded. One of the few drawbacks of being a clinical psychiatrist is that while you can see the personal growth of each individual, I wonder: do I need to reach a wider audience? So maybe there will be a film with my name on it before our 60th reunion.