Steve Flatt on medicine versus psychology
Steve Flatt
Director of the PTU in Liverpool. Solution focused practitioner, cognitive therapist, nurse and psychologist.
Excerpt:
I have seen far too many professionals hell bent on promoting their own careers, making money and/or fame out of the distress of others. Thinking far too little about the experience of those they are working with; how their interventions impact and how their powerbase biases the control the person has over their own care and how that powerbase may also reflect the person’s previous experience of life with other dominant and possibly abusive figures.
Being a powerful and confident professional is not always best; assuming we know what is best for any given individual is arrogant and insightless.
It is time for a change of approach to psychological/psychiatric wellness that puts the individual at the centre but that means the professional has to give up their powerful “expert” position and assume, like Socrates, that they really don’t know what the experience of the person they are working with is like. (Except Socrates was being, like all professionals, rather disingenuous as he had an agenda too!)
No comments:
Post a Comment
As the Vulcans say: "I rejoice in our differences". Comments, questions and differing opinions are welcome.
Because of spam, comments are now moderated.