Keith Ablow

Keith Ablow
Born	Keith Russell Ablow (1961-11-23) November 23, 1961 Marblehead, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Brown University Johns Hopkins University
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Deborah Jean Small
Children	2[1][2]

Keith Russell Ablow (born November 23, 1961) is an American psychiatrist, author and television personality. He is also a contributor on psychiatry for Fox News Channel. As of 2011, he was also an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine.^[3]

Early life and training

Ablow was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the son of Jewish parents Jeanette Norma and Allan Murray Ablow. Ablow attended Marblehead High School, graduating in 1979.^[4] He graduated from Brown University in 1983, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science degree in neurosciences. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1987^[5] and completed his psychiatry residency at the Tufts-New England Medical Center. He was Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology in psychiatry in 1993 and forensic psychiatry in 1999.^[6]

While a medical student, he worked as a reporter for Newsweek and a freelancer for the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun and USA Today. After his residency, Ablow served as medical director of the Tri-City Mental Health Centers and then became medical director of Heritage Health Systems and Associate Medical Director of Boston Regional Medical Center.

Personal life

Ablow's wife, Deborah Jean Small, is an attorney.^[7]

Television and writing career

Ablow has written hundreds of columns/articles for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Herald and FoxNews.com. He has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, The Howard Stern Show, Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, Larry King Live, The Tyra Banks Show, Nancy Grace (CNN) program, Catherine Crier Live, The Dr. Oz Show, Fox & Friends, Geraldo, Imus, Montel, Inside Edition, Showbiz Tonight, and The O'Reilly Factor.

From June 2006 through September 2007, Ablow was host and executive producer of his own national daily talk show, The Dr. Keith Ablow Show, syndicated by Warner Bros. On October 17, 2006 he obtained an exclusive interview with John Mark Karr, the man who falsely confessed to being the murderer of beauty pageant child star JonBenet Ramsey, and videotaped Karr without his knowledge at times.^[8] After interviewing Karr, Ablow asserted he was dealing with a "textbook case of pedophilia" and that Karr would continue to pose a threat to society once free. The show lasted less than one year, with about 1% of TV viewers tuning in.^[9]

Since his show's cancellation, Ablow has been a contributing editor for Good Housekeeping Magazine and a columnist for the New York Post. He contributes commentary and analysis for the Fox News Channel. Ablow is the author of six psychological fiction thrillers featuring Frank Clevenger, a forensic psychiatrist dedicated to a search for truth, no matter where it leads. More than one of the titles was a USA Today bestseller.

Ablow's true crime book, Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson, was a New York Times bestseller. In 2007, Ablow published a prescriptive self-help book, Living the Truth: Transform Your Life Through the Power of Insight and Honesty in conjunction with a self-help web community. His 2011 book, The 7,^[10] co-authored by Glenn Beck, was released in January 2011 and was a New York Times bestseller. In November, St. Martin's Press published a second Ablow book, Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony: A Psychological Portrait.

Ablow has also written widely circulated columns on FoxNews.com addressing treatment strategies for major depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse disorders. He has written about possible diagnoses for public figures, though he has never actually treated them himself. He publicly speculated that Vice President Joe Biden had dementia after his 2012 VP debate performance.^[11] Ablow has written 15 books, some published by the American Psychiatric Association, been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and written for Psychiatric Times magazine.

Political ambitions

In January 2013, Ablow expressed his interests in possibly running for the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry,^[12] On February 5, 2013, Ablow announced that he would seek the Republican nomination, but only if he did not have to face a primary battle.^[13] On February 6, 2013, Ablow said he would not run since other Republican contenders entered the race, and declared his support for Republican State Rep. Dan Winslow.^[14]

Controversial comments in the media

Ablow has made a number of controversial statements, including psychological assessments of various celebrities he has never examined, that have drawn criticism from other practitioners in his field as well as from various organizations and groups which were offended by his comments. Ablow posted in an article on the Fox News website that years ago he "resigned in protest" from the American Psychiatric Association,^[15] the governing body that sets the standard of practice in the field of psychiatry and publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). He did not clarify what he had been protesting about, but expressed his disagreement with various entries in the DSM.

In April 2011, Ablow wrote a health column for FoxNews.com^[16] which criticized designer Jenna Lyons for publishing an advertisement in the J. Crew catalogue in which she was depicted painting her young son's toenails hot pink. Ablow wrote that gender distinctions are "part of the magnificent synergy that creates and sustains the human race". The column sparked a controversy around his claims that painting a child's toenails pink could have an effect on their gender identity and led to accusations of overreaction, as was reported upon by numerous news media sources.^{[17][18][19][20]} Ablow refused to back down, re-posting the column on his Facebook page.

During the 2012 Republican primary, Ablow wrote a column arguing that Newt Gingrich's three marriages actually made him more qualified to be president. He wrote: "When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we'll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we'll want to let him go after one."^[21] The column was criticized, with Rod Dreher of The American Conservative commenting thusly: "Oh for frack's sake. At some point, you have to wonder when shamelessness crosses the line from character defect to psychopathology. If only Dr. Leo Spaceman were a Republican, he could have a lucrative career on Fox."^[22]

On August 12, 2014, as a guest co-host on the Fox News show, Outnumbered, Ablow criticized First Lady Michelle Obama's weight, stating "she needs to drop a few [pounds]."^[23] Ablow continued his attacks on an August 21, 2014 segment, telling the women panelists on the show that they also need to lose weight.^[24]

On October 9, 2014, concerning the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Ablow opined on Fox News that he believed the president "may literally believe we should suffer along with less fortunate nations. And if he does, that is a very dangerous psychological stance from which to confront Ebola".^[25] He stated that President Obama was not protecting the United States from Ebola because his "affiliations" and "affinities" were more with Africa.^[26] His Ebola comments drew criticism, including from Fox television host Greg Gutfeld (The Five).^[27]

In an October 28, 2014 FoxNews.com op-ed, Ablow stoked controversy by writing "it's time for an American jihad" to forcibly, if need be, convert every nation's government into a reflection of the U.S. government.^[28]

On May 5, 2015, on the Fox New show Outnumbered, Ablow stated that he believes that men should be able to "veto" women's abortions.^[29]

On June 16, 2015, on the Fox News show Fox & Friends, Ablow called transgender people a threat to children and compared them to people who assert they are a different species.^[30]

Bibliography

Non-fiction

• Medical School: Getting In, Staying In, Staying Human (1987)
• How to Cope with Depression (1989)
• To Wrestle With Demons: A Psychiatrist Struggles to Understand His Patients and Himself (1992)
• Anatomy of a Psychiatric Illness: Healing the Mind and Brain (1993)
• The Strange Case of Dr. Kappler: The Doctor Who Became a Killer (1994)
• Without Mercy: The Shocking True Story of a Doctor Who Murdered (1996)
• Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson (2005)
• Living the Truth: Transform Your Life Through the Power of Insight and Honesty (2007)
• The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life (2011) (co-authored with Glenn Beck)
• Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony: A Psychological Portrait (2011)

Fiction/mystery

The series features Frank Clevenger, a forensic psychiatrist from Massachusetts.

• Denial (1998)
• Projection (1999)
• Compulsion (2002)
• Psychopath (2003)
• Murder Suicide (2004)
• The Architect (2005)

References

External links

• Biography
• FOX Health blog, "Mind of the News"
• Contributor for SingleMindedWomen.com
• Keith Ablow interview, about one of his books (Murder/Suicide)
• Interview with Ablow on 'How to Make Your Marriage Last'
• TV Series Finale - TV series cancellation details