As a life-long learner, I took every opportunity to learn from any person or situation that I encountered. Some of my most significant learning experiences came from my encounters with those individuals who sought my professional help as a psychiatrist. In this book, I recount twenty-eight of the most enlightening experiences I had during my 50-year career. All personal and identifying information was altered to protect the identity of the actual patients. The most interesting aspect of the case was taken, and an entirely ...
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As a life-long learner, I took every opportunity to learn from any person or situation that I encountered. Some of my most significant learning experiences came from my encounters with those individuals who sought my professional help as a psychiatrist. In this book, I recount twenty-eight of the most enlightening experiences I had during my 50-year career. All personal and identifying information was altered to protect the identity of the actual patients. The most interesting aspect of the case was taken, and an entirely fictional character and circumstances were built on it. Any similarity with any person's condition is simply the reflection that such afflictions are not uncommon. The figures are the workings of the imagination of the artist. While not the main purpose of the book, the book, to some extent deals with the issue of stigma attached to psychiatric disorders. The issue of stigma is well known. Two main factors tend to be the major contributors to a disorder or a condition being stigmatizing. The first is attributing the problem to a personal characteristic that the person at some level is in control of, much like in sexually transmitted diseases. This is perhaps the major factor in the stigma associated with psychiatric disorders. A second factor is uncertainty regarding what the condition could lead to. The perception that the disorder is indicative of a character flaw leads to a reluctance to hire the person. The full recognition of the biological nature of an illness will usher-in the beginning of the dissipation of the stigma. The realization of the biological nature of psychiatric disorders has come of age in the current era of "Biological Psychiatry". Progressively more psychiatrists describe themselves as Biological Psychiatrists. One crucially important lesson I learned through my 50 years of teaching and taking care of patients, is that the practice of Psychiatry is both very easy and very difficult at the same time. Our mistakes whether diagnostic or therapeutic are very difficult to discover at least in the immediate or short term. This is unlike mistakes that can lead to endangering the lives of patients like taking a good kidney out by error!!! On the other hand, the ever-increasing volume of research in all sub-fields of Psychiatry makes it hard for the conscientious psychiatrist to keep up with advances in the field. A clinician must strive to be knowledgeable by constantly reviewing recent publications and attending the many national and international scientific conferences as his/her time allows. Clinicians must also be skeptical when approaching the diagnostic process and should avail themselves of any available diagnostic aids.
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