Legislative Work as a Contact Sport

Psychiatric News asked Ken Libertoff, Ph.D., whether any of the psychological skills he used as a college basketball player have served him as he has worked hard on behalf of mental health issues in the Vermont legislature (see Advocate's Small-State Wins Get Big-Time Attention). “I'll answer it this way,” he replied. “Basketball was and is a contact sport. Much of legislative work is also a contact sport. One has to bring to the legislature a variety of skills. One of them is passion. Another is discipline. A third is organization. And the fourth is not to give up until the end. The reality is that it is almost always during the last few days of a legislative session where compromises are made, deals are cut, and seemingly hopeless ideas, causes, or proposals sometimes become law. So I would say that there is some correlation between training to be a college basketball player and being able to succeed in the legislature.”