Psychiatrists need a Freud-chip in their psyche to be well-rounded.

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Byline: James. Antony Since the celebration of the decade of the brain commenced in 1990, the mind-set of many psychiatrists has tilted considerably, to become almost totally biological. Though we have nice concepts like eclecticism, which can provide the right kind of theory-hat to tackle tough clinical situations, even the word hardly gets mentioned in professional circles these days! and quietly, mental health care has switched over to a kind of treatment: [sup][1] The psychiatrist addresses things biological, the clinical psychologist would administer his few panaceas like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and counseling to almost everyone and as for other mental health professionals, they pursue their narrow tracks, in solitude! We have totally forgotten Adolf Meyer, who taught us the usefulness of studying psychiatric disorders as reaction-types and about the need to integrate psycho-social factors with biological ones, while trying to understand sick persons. Even a simple, practical stance like bio-psycho-social approach, [sup][2] does not appeal to many present-day practitioners! With regards to psycho-dynamic formulation, which could enable every clinician to have a holistic understanding of his patients, it is no more viewed as useful by most psychiatrists. Even in institutions rated as centers of excellence, trainees are no more taught the basics of dynamic theories. And for many in the profession, psychotherapy means just behavior therapy and its offshoots! The old holistic approach of physicians toward patients slowly started to change with the arrival of reductionism. When at a conceptual level, one could split any including man, into small compact components and study each part intensely, researchers gained many fascinating insights. With rapid growth in its basic sciences, or rather advanced in leaps and bounds. And by the end of the 19 [sup]th century, doctors could cure many illnesses that were scourges for mankind since ages! However, medical practice as a whole had to pay a price for all such fabulous advances: From then onwards doctors started to view patients as some sort of machines needing repair, rather than fellow human beings in distress. Later, when specialization became a central feature of the entire Medicare scenario, this cold, machine-view about human beings worsened further. We have another idea, again a contribution by Rene Descartes that radically changed the thinking of medical practitioners. In a rather ingenious manner, he divided Man into two portions, body and soul. Such a division at a conceptual level was made by Descartes to bring about a truce to a then prevailing tussle between the powerful church on the one side and the slowly emerging medicine on the other. Descartes decreed that doctors must confine themselves to the job of treating the body, while priests were given the right to disorders of the soul! This Cartesian dichotomy continues to strongly influence the thinking of everybody including doctors, even today. [sup][3],[4] It has inflicted serious harm to health care systems all over the world, in many ways. We have, for example, many religious healers who seriously believe they have a God-given right to treat psychiatric patients! later, when mind became the new scientific term for two words, psyche and soul, and when psychology emerged as the new science of many psychologists too started to think in the same fashion, like priest-healers: Treating an independent entity or that particular part of man-machine called mind, is their exclusive right! When such a machine model became the very center-piece of medical wisdom, even great authorities in started to teach students that they must distance themselves from mundane social and emotional issues of patients! …