Psychiatrist won’t be punished for offbeat videos

By Marshall Allen

Friday, March 26, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

Officials won’t be taking action against a state psychiatrist who has posted Internet videos of himself in his underwear discussing sex and talking glibly about subjects such as suicide and wrist slashing.

The reason: He did it on his own time, so there was no violation of his state employment agreement.

After receiving complaints, the Nevada Health and Developmental Services Division reviewed the videos of Dr. Mark Viner, a board certified senior psychiatrist who works for Northern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services. Viner has posted about 600 videos on YouTube and medclip.com, pretending to be a character called “Doctor of Mind,” who speaks in spaced-out tones about subjects such as mind-altering drugs and mental problems.

The videos are intended to be comedic, but don’t sit well with some viewers.

But the only issue of concern to the state was whether he produced them on his own time.

“Dr. Viner is a very well-respected psychiatrist who has a special knack for working with patients suffering from severe mental illness,” said Ben Kieckhefer, spokesman for the state.

Viner, who is a nationally known suicide expert, said his Doctor of Mind videos are intended to inform, not offend. “I’m purposely being offbeat,” he said.

He sells products on his Web site and hopes to develop the idea into a call-in talk show that would be distributed on the radio, TV or Internet.

Dr. Ole Thienhaus, a psychiatrist and dean of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, thinks the videos are “disturbing” and undermine the reputation of psychiatry. He said Viner will no longer be overseeing any of the school’s students or medical residents, as he has in the past.

The Nevada State Medical Examiners Board is reviewing Viner’s videos but has not yet found anything that would violate Nevada’s Medical Practices Act, Executive Director Doug Cooper said.