Joe Pierre M.D.

About

Joseph M. Pierre, M.D., is a Health Sciences Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. His work focuses on the treatment of individuals with severe mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression, and co-occurring substance use disorders. Although his clinical practice centers on the care of hospitalized patients who suffer from psychotic disorders, he has a longstanding interest in the grey area between psychopathology and normality and the psychological underpinnings of everyday life. Psych Unseen draws from the perspectives of psychiatry, neuroscience, psychology, and evidence-based medicine to address timely topics related to mental illness, human behavior, and how we come to hold popular and not-so-popular beliefs.

Recent Posts

Are We Really All Authoritarians at Heart?

The predisposition to authoritarianism isn't about the Right or the Left so much as an intolerance of our ideological opposites.

Why Do People Choose Authoritarianism Over Democracy?

The appeal of authoritarianism isn't about wanting to be controlled; it's about removing the protections of democracy to control others.

A Postscript and Postmortem on the Suicide of Aaron Bushnell

Our ideological beliefs influence how we view suicide as a political act.

Self-Immolation Is Often Part Protest, Part Suicide

What does research on self-immolation tell us about recent acts of suicide by fire?

The Taylor Swift Conspiracy to Get Biden Reelected

Belief in a conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift is part of a secret plot to get Biden reelected may be explained by partisan motivated reasoning and fears about the 2024 election.

What Causes Terrorism? Mental Illness or Ideological Belief?

Racial bias and motivated reasoning drive causal attributions of terrorist violence.

Is Religious Faith Compatible With Scientific Thinking?

Integrating faith-based and evidence-based beliefs in a mentally-healthy way.

Straddling the Fence of Pathological Belief

"Fence-sitters" represent the low-hanging fruit of pathological belief where psychotherapeutic interventions can lessen ideological commitment.

Will New Antipsychotics for Schizophrenia Be Game Changers?

Two new medications offer novel mechanisms of action to treat patients with schizophrenia who don't respond to other antipsychotic drugs.

Antipsychotic Therapy Since the 1950s: Little Has Changed

For years, a combination of bad luck and financial risk aversion has stifled antipsychotic drug development.