Recently a patient asked whether I’d ever been in therapy myself. Without answering his question directly (see my post on psychotherapist disclosure and privacy), I replied that many of us have, and asked what it meant to him. It would be a bad sign: “How can you help if you need help too?” We went […]
|
|
|
|
I’d like to take this opportunity to comment on the article that appeared in today’s New York Times: “Talk doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns to Drug Therapy.” Gardiner Harris writes about psychiatry’s shift from talk therapy to drugs, and profiles psychiatrist Donald Levin of Doylestown, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia), who felt financially unable to […] December brings the annual pleasures and challenges of holiday gifts and how to deal with them in dynamic psychotherapy. Although it is relatively easy to follow a simple rule about this, ideally a good deal of thought goes into a therapist’s decision about whether to accept a patient’s holiday gift. Below I will give a […] Cross-posted from “Sacramento Street Psychiatry“. In dynamic psychotherapy, patients often say how hurt and victimized they feel as a result of unkind judgments or criticisms by others: “My coworker called me a hypocrite!” “My mother told me I neglect her by not visiting enough.” “My husband complains I’m too self-centered.” Although sharing such complaints with […] Earlier this year, blog commenter TK wrote: “Isn’t this the greatest countertransference, in this age of fee-for-service psychotherapy as opposed to psychotherapist-on-salary: How do I work around my own economic motivation in deciding whether to continue with a patient or terminate? “In other words, how does one reconcile the consistent economic incentive to keep a […] Reposted from Sacramento Street Psychiatry. Sometimes an unruly character disrupts the surrounding peace and quiet. Loud, gruff words and ill-considered behavior mar the scene. Onlookers cringe, awaiting the impending destruction. For this beastly fellow is bound to break something: wreck a friendship or relationship, make a workplace intolerable. All the worse if the setting harbors […] My fellow psychiatrist and blogger Dr. Daniel Carlat has an article in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine. “Mind Over Meds” is a memoir of Dr. Carlat’s growing realization that psychiatry can’t be done well in 15-20 minute medication visits, that talking to patients as people is important too. I’m generally a fan of Dr. […] |
 |