I think President [Barack] Obama is exactly right, we need to combat [gun shoots] because this really can become the new normal, but that`s really what`s been happening.

I think that we're making a mistake if we don't see that there is a cultural basis to many illnesses, not just psychiatric ones. Breast cancer would be one prevalent example right now, different kind of cultures surrounding it. If you don't understand the cultural meaning of an illness like that you're going to miss the boat even if you're a great scientist.

The issue of guns, as president [Barack] Obama mentioned, which is particularly assailant in Colorado, a very complicated gun story, and I think a political climate that urges people to take issues into their own hands.

I'm a practicing psychiatrist and I think that I really believe in the advances of psychiatry. Our diagnoses are more precise.

There are really exciting things happening in genetic and neurobiology right now, and really looking at the ways in which different not just illnesses, but social conditions and social pressures can actually lead to actual brain changes.

Depression as one example is an illness that has a chemical basis, but also is deeply embedded in cultural norms about gender, social class, race.

I think President [Barack] Obama is exactly right, we need to combat [gun shoots] because this really can become the new normal, but that`s really what`s been happening.