Psychiatric Treatment of Social Disadvantage

Excerpt

In the practice of psychiatry there is often a profound difference between how we perceive our role, and how it is perceived by those whom we treat. We see ourselves as physicians using the tools of our trade; diagnoses, medications, psychotherapies and when necessary hospitalization to treat our patients’ illnesses. They, however, usually do not share this perspective nor use these categories. They have their own better established ways to understand their lives and therefore our role. I learned this the hard way. During the first year of my residency, while I was learning to diagnose, prescribe and do psychotherapy, the psychologist on our unit surveyed the patients to determine which aspect of their treatment they had found most therapeutic. At the end of our rotation he asked us to guess what they had answered. None of us could, because what they found most therapeutic about their hospitalization was it “provides a rest.” …