Hey, Edgar. I have my masters in psychology of learning, and I have personally known several psychiatrists. They always seem to form an opinion prior to treatment.
"....psychiatrists no everything and do nothing..." Always loved that quote from Crichton's book "A Case of Need".
I don't remember the author of I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, but it was a true story about a journalist who was under the care of a psychiatrist. All he did was dispense valium and when she decided to stop taking it cold turkey, she lost about a month or two of her life. The results were unbelievable, until she began seeing a clinical psychologist.
I'm sorta out of the loop now, but the last I heard, Konrad Lorenz with his theory on decision making, was one of the newest additions in the field of medicine. I won't bore you to death with long involved explanations, but some theories I advocate, others are just crap.
There are a lot of different kinds of shrinks with a lot of different methods. For example, there are behavioral psychologists, who try to train you into behavior a la Pavlovian habit. There are evolutionary psychologists, who try to understand deviance in terms of why it is there and then asses how to treat it. There are psycologists speicalizing in medicine and it's impact on the brain (which is kind of a scientific crapshoot because of our limited knowledge about the brain and how it is affected by drugs.) Note that doctors can also prescribe these drugs which leads to a lot of trouble and miscommunication between doctors and psycologists.
Councellors have less training that Psycologists and cannot prescribe drugs. They are the ones who listen to your problems and say "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh..." For $10 + bucks an hour.
MMmmhmmmm....
Tell me more.
Er - Lie there on the couch, please.
edgarblythe wrote:I thought when I created this thread there would be a number of a2kers with degrees or something responding and educating us. Wha hoppen?
I thought we had a nice chat, edgar!
Oh, we did. I am not ungrateful. I don't really know what else I wanted out of this thread - Perhaps the sense of adventure and discovery one brings to a first ever reading of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, or, C G Jung, or even a book like Portnoy's Complaint - Whatever. I admit to being too shortsighted and uneducated to this topic to have a plan.
Psychoanalysis is fascinating, and a worthwhile hobby to take up, however, psychologists are really screwy, I think they take money and do little, besides worsen a problem. However, I have heard differently. Freud was a sexaholic nutcase.
I have been "psycho-analyzed" and enjoyed it very much.
Gained a lot of insights, but also impressed the therapist with my own, or so she said. I studied psych, but don't really do anything with it.
I've seen a shrink, but not a good one!
The trouble is they, the shrinks, always want to fit people into some kind of norm. And there is no normal at least not for me.
Sigh - I wish people would separate out analysts and psychiatrists.
Also - can PSYCHOLOGISTS really prescribe in the US? They are not doctors, and certainly cannot do so here.
I disagree with a great deal of what has been said here about all of this - and I am a therapist - though neither psychiatrist nor psychologist. I just dinna want to get into a bunfight about bloody work-related subjects! Too much work on my mind at the best of times.
I will come back, if you like, Edgar - and say something.
Lola is the one who can speak for analysis. I wonder if she has eschewed it fo rthe same reasons I have? Oh - I am not a psychoanalyst, either - they are scarce on the fround round here. Not very effective with "real" mental health issues - ie severe ones - and very expensive for medicare. But fun and illuminating for the 'worried well" - like most of us, would be my judgment.
Shrinks. That is a word that might annoy many who have spent at least years and maybe decades in these fields.
I have several friends who are marriage and famiy counselors, or have masters in social work, or are psychologists with doctorates; had a neighbor who was and is still a psychiatrist, a long time friend who was an emergency room physician with a full residency in psychiatry, and a friend who was a psychoanalyst sans being a psychiatrist first (he was head of an institute at the time I knew him) and a new friend who is also a psychoanalyst sans med degree.
Yes, many people drawn to these arts and sciences may (or may not) have tremendous problems themselves, at least to start and maybe sometimes to finish. But then... a huge bunch of us do, and they spend a lot of hours working to understand.
I too would like to see some people in the field(s) post...
No, psychologists cannot prescribe. They have been fighting for the right to be able to, but as far as I know, they haven't won it.
I would love to have a bit more information about the nuts and bolts of today's psychiatry. I no longer contemplate such teatment for myself; just wonder where it's is heading, if at all.
