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Dr. Noah Shaw is a psychiatrist who is working to adapt his game to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. He recently fielded some questions from Executive Director and Co-Founder Farrell Evans about the game, Detroit, Freud, child psychology, junior golf, and a hypothetical movie about a golfer and an Upper West Side shrink.

FE: You grew up in Detroit. Describe that childhood and how much the city has shaped your life and outlook?

NS: Growing up in Detroit in the late 1940s and 50s was rosier than one might initially imagine. World War II had just ended, and there was optimism in the air. Each year brought a sense of rebirth with the introduction in the fall of next year’s car models. It was a time when I could leave my bike outside on the lawn with impunity, and it would still be there in the morning.

A true highlight of my time in Detroit was my attending Cass Technical High School. It was like a combination of Bronx Science, the High School of Music and Art, and a vocational school with a focus on producing auto mechanics. Even though these were separate tracks, we took math and English classes together. Most importantly, not only was it heterogeneous scholastically, but there was a mixture of racially, ethnically, and financially diverse students. I had friends in all of these groups, none of whom were from my neighborhood. I think it gave me a naïve expectation of what the rest of the world was like.

However, towering above all of this was my obsession with the Detroit Lions. Believe it or not, they won the NFL championship three times in the 1950s, including back-to-back wins in ’52 and ’53.

All of this changed quickly and dramatically, however. When I left Detroit in 1965 to come to New York for my psychiatric training, things were going downhill severely. I did miss the worst, having lived in what would become the epicenter of the 1967 riots.

FE: Fifteen years ago you were diagnosed with Parkinson’s. What are you and Brian Hwang working on with your golf swing to overcome some of the challenges that come with that disease?

NS: Brian has been quite helpful and creative in modifying my game to fit my diagnosis. More specifically, he helped me to make my swing more compact without any significant loss of power — loss of power being, of course, the dreaded bête noire of all golfers. In my last lesson, I actually hit the ball farther than I have in several years. Most recently, he has also made some dramatic changes in my putting. It’s exciting to anticipate how these will work on the actual golf course.

FE: You are a psychiatrist. In what way has that training and experience with hundreds of patients over your 40-plus-year career prepared you for the mental side of golf?

NS: My theory of mental life, reinforced by many years of work with many patients, follows a direction that is not too popular these days. It builds on the work of Sigmund Freud. I feel that we all follow unconscious scripts of which we are not aware. It is quite frightening to acknowledge that there is a part of your mind to which you don’t have access, a part that is significantly influencing your thoughts and behavior.

These scripts are laid down in childhood, and the only way to change them is to revisit childhood via therapy. As I say to patients, “It doesn’t matter if Laurence Olivier or John Gielgud plays Macbeth; he dies at the end of the play.” So whenever I encounter an intense experience on the golf course, I say to myself, “There’s more here than meets the eye.”

FE: What might Freud say about golf?

NS: Freud would have two basic thoughts about golf. First, it is a fertile arena in which to experience all of your intra-psychic conflicts. Secondly, a person’s true character shows up most clearly under adversity, and there’s no better place than the golf course for this to be demonstrated.

FE: At The Bridge Golf Foundation, our work is centered on ending some of the disparities for young men of color that have grown to a large degree out of structural racism. You work with children in your practice. What are some of the important factors to understand about racism, mental health, and the inner lives of children?

NS: I’m glad you mentioned the inner life of the child. This subject is dear to my heart. The child’s inner life is a prism through which reality is viewed. Therefore, how the child is introduced to the unfairness of life, such as racism and financial inequalities, is crucial to their ability to create an adaptive response. I think the father of Russell Wilson, quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, said it best when he told his son, in relation to the idea of triumphing over adversity, “Why not you?!”

FE: At 75, what are your goals as a golfer?

NS: My first goal would be to be able to reverse things and become a 57-year-old golfer. Since I don’t have an 11-inch wand made of holly with a core of Phoenix feathers, I will settle for my next goal, which is to become a 76-year-old golfer. I was a serious rock climber when I took up golf at 65. I didn’t want to wait until I couldn’t climb anymore and then take up a new sport.

My first instructor, John Connolly, wisely told me, “Noah, no matter how hard you work, you will never have the swing you would have had if you had started this as a child.” This allowed me to relax. So my main goal, believe it or not, is to enjoy golf — to feel a thrill when I hear the sound of a perfectly hit golf ball and watch that white sphere on its parabolic course against a blue sky. I missed out on starting young, and that’s why it’s so pleasurable for me to see that The Bridge Golf Foundation is not letting that happen to the youngsters who come here.

FE: If you could have been anyone else in human history other than Noah Shaw, who would that person have been and why?

NS: I would have been Beethoven. He was arguably the greatest composer of all time. He accomplished this in spite of tremendous adversity. He composed one of the most magnificent pieces of music ever written, his Ninth Symphony, after he was completely deaf. He left a legacy that will bring joy and inspiration to countless people for centuries to come.

FE: I have always wanted to do a Woody Allen-style movie that focused on an Upper West Side golfer and his relationship with his shrink. You’re an Upper West Side shrink. What actors would you choose for those roles and why?

NS: I would choose Robin Williams for the psychiatrist. In addition to his ability to ably play comedic or serious roles, he delivered the funniest monologue on golf I’ve ever heard. For the golfer, I would take Burt Lancaster. His over-the-top intensity would be a nice foil for Robin Williams.