Sam sat across from me in the psychiatric inpatient unit’s intake room, following a visit from his wife and kids. His voice was trembling and his gaze focused as he answered my questions, “Have you ever done anything, started to do anything, or prepared to do anything to end your life?” He lifted his sleeve and showed me the bandage and explained how, just a few days ago, he had cut deeper for the first time in a long time. “I just couldn’t stop the thoughts, and had to cut deeper. Normally it’s just small cuts, but I couldn’t stop thinking about connecting the dots on my arm.” Sam explained that he had struggled with severe depression and cutting since adolescence. His first suicide attempt occurred in early adulthood, and now middle aged, he had been admitted for his second. I have followed Sam and numerous other participants as a research case manager, and each of these interactions have emphasized the importance of the question: what are the neurobiological correlates of depression, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicide ideation and attempts? How can we best target these cognitive and affective processes in the context of treatment and intervention? I would be honored to have the opportunity to explore these questions with Dr. Alloy’s and Dr. McCloskey’s…show more content… At St. John’s College, I completed a discussion-based Great Books program that taught me to think deeply and independently across the foundational disciplines: science, mathematics, philosophy, literature, language, and music. I became fascinated with gestalt developmental biology, and decided to become a researcher and psychiatrist with an emphasis on psychiatric epigenetics. After related research experience and the equivalent of a major in the pre-medical sciences, I decided that I found the prospect of training in behavioral rather than pharmacological interventions more
