Noshing With Tahir Rahman, M.D. – September 5, 2024

Author (with Jeffrey Abugel), Extreme Overvalued Beliefs: Clinical and Forensic Psychiatric Dimensions

This week, Ira spoke with FBI consultant and forensic psychologist Tahir Rahman, M.D., author (with Jeffrey Abugel) of Extreme Overvalued Beliefs: Clinical and Forensic Psychiatric Dimensions. In this believable episode of “Ira’s Everything Bagel,” Tahir talks about why he decided to specialize in this work; how he developed a new and better classification system for criminal behavior involving mass shootings, terrorism, etc.; why people have extreme overvalued beliefs; the cultural reinforcement of these beliefs; copycat behaviors; why he is an amateur historian; the thinking behind the behavior; binary simplistic thinking; learning about these behaviors; the role of media; coming up with solutions; how to evaluate a threat; establishing a probable cause; the role of substance abuse, grief, and financial losses; the underutilization of crisis response teams; who the book was written for; delusions vs. belief systems; and what he wants readers to take from his book.

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Tahir Rahman, M.D. is an award-winning author and physician-scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He led the development of utilizing three cognitive affective drivers in threat assessment (Obsessions, Delusions and Extreme Overvalued Beliefs). He is a passionate educator of students, psychiatrists and a lecturer at the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law as well as the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed psychiatric and psychological journals and textbook chapters. Dr. Rahman has collaborated with noted scholars in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and behavioral threat assessment. He has consulted on criminal and civil cases for the past 25 years and he is a guest lecturer at the elite FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, Quantico.

Dr. Rahman was born in Saskatchewan, Canada and he grew up in Kansas. His parents were from Pakistan and his father was a British trained psychiatrist. He attended Haysville Campus High School and then he attended the University of Kansas for his undergraduate and medical school degrees. Dr. Rahman next completed his residency in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore in 1999. He was a private practice clinician and psychiatric consultant for the Kansas City Chiefs and later pursued an academic and research career at the University of Missouri and now at Washington University. He is an avid aviation and space enthusiast, historian, lecturer, father, memorabilia collector and dog owner.

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