Careful, Doctor--Turnabout Is Fair Play

Samson a sociopath?

Bach a plagiarizing trickster?

Shakespeare a literary fraud and dupe for Edward de Vere?

While I couldn’t help but be thoroughly impressed by Tony Perry’s piece (“A Doctor by Day and Detective in Spare Time,” Aug. 27) on the amazingly prolific Dr. Eric Altschuler, I must admit to a certain skepticism as well.

While there can be no doubt as to Altschuler’s infinite credentials and qualifications, one cannot help but question the confidence and ease with which he so readily assigns such modern maladies to such historical personages.

It seems to me that to put any merit to any of these wildly speculative theories would be to allow for the possibility that one day the good doctor might himself fall under the same questionable scrutiny. In the future, will the irrepressible Dr. Altschuler be lauded for his “internal fire” or just another chronic sufferer of attention deficit disorder?

MICHAEL CHASE WALKER

Beverly Hills