Among the kinds of specialists he may choose
from are the following: A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in mental
and emotional disturbances. Along with basic medical education, he has had
special training, including years of internship and residency, in diagnosis and
treatment of emotional disorders. Preferably, he should be certified by the
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, indicating that he has satisfied
established requirements for training, experience, and competence. A
psychoanalyst is a psychiatrist schooled in the procedures of psycho- analysis.
He has had special postgraduate study, usually at a training institution
associated with the American Psychoanalytic Association. While psychoanalysts
are psychiatrists, not all psychiatrists are analysts.
There are also lay analysts who are not
physicians; most often they are clinical psychologists who have had analytic
training at a psychoanalytic institution. A neurologist is a physician with
special training in brain and nervous system problems. He is often of service
when mental disorders stem from physical problems. A psychologist is not a
physician. He may be a "doctor" as the result of earning a doctorate
in philosophy after extensive postgraduate work in the field of human behavior.
Some psychologists teach; some do re- search work. A clinical psychologist
works in the field of abnormal behavior and deals with patients. One of his
important functions may be to administer psychological tests that may be
helpful in diagnosing mental problems. A psychiatric social worker generally
serves as an important aide, pro- viding rehabilitative counseling, keeping a
patient's family informed, and maintaining records. Often social workers with
suitable backgrounds, including college education and postgraduate work leading
to a master of social work degree, are trained to work with patients, providing
psychotherapy, usually under the supervision of a psychiatrist. It is important
to note here that often your family physician himself may be able to help you.
Don't hesitate to talk about yourself-your real self and your real problems-to
your doctor. More and more family physicians today are interested in emotional
as well as physical problems.
Medical schools increasingly have been
teaching psychiatric principles as a major part of medical training. Many
general practitioners have taken special postgraduate training and are
qualified to provide some of the forms of psychotherapy we will discuss
shortly. Actually, psychotherapy is a broad term which covers everything from
the simplest "spilling out" of troubles to a wise friend to the long,
de- tailed process of psychoanalysis. And the fact is that virtually every doctor
has always practiced some form of psychotherapy-quite often, in the past,
without realizing it. In dealing with a patient who has an exaggerated fear
that he is ill, the doctor's examination, explanation, reassurance, and
firmness are forms of psychotherapy.
When he helps a tense, nervous patient to
find a hobby-that, too, is psychotherapy
Physicians, of course, are human. Not all are
emotionally constituted to be able to help with all kinds of problems which
their patients face, even if they have the time. Try to size up your doctor. It
is important to find someone with whom you will be personally in sympathy. Give
your doctor a chance, and if you discover that the two of you do not click, you
have a perfect right to find someone else: The best psychiatrists know that it
is not possible to establish a good relationship with every patient. Knowing
how important such a relationship is for the success of treatment, they
sometimes even suggest that a patient change to someone else if the existing
relationship is not sufficiently good.
