This paper discusses the perceptions of psychiatric testimony by the public, lawyers, and psychiatrists. Five major criticisms are put into historical perspective: psychiatrists excuse sin; psychiatrists always disagree; psychiatrists give confusing, subjective, uninformed, jargon-ridden testimony; psychiatrists dictate the law; psychiatrists give conclusory opinions. Proposed solutions to thes...

Although written by a professor of politics, this book is about American psychiatrists and analysts. It describes two different 'tribes' of doctors: analysts, more highly selected, earning more money and seeing fewer patients, who are individually more important and more influential, and general practitioners, working in mental hospitals and centres and seemingly regarded as an inferior breed. ...

OBJECTIVE To understand how to improve collaboration between psychiatrists and family physicians in primary care settings. DESIGN Qualitative study using 10 in-depth interviews and a focus group session. SETTING Catchment area in eastern Montreal, Que. PARTICIPANTS Five FPs and five psychiatrists. METHOD Ten interviews and a focus group were conducted to identify ways of improving colla...

BACKGROUND The identification of health care professionals who are incompetent, impaired, exploitative or have criminal intent is important for public safety. It is unclear whether psychiatrists are more likely to commit medical misconduct offences than non-psychiatrists, and if the nature of these offences is different. AIM The aim of this study was to compare the characteristics of psychiat...

Although psychiatrists did not form part of the structures of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa (SPSA) at the time did make a submission. Since then, the local association of psychiatrists has been reconstituted as the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP). Psychiatry and psychiatrists may have to extend their acti...