Psychology and somatology: A critical psychology in the medical setting

Fourcher, Louis A.

doi:10.1016/0037-7856(77)90029-4

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Their expertise in the understanding of human feelings and the facilitation of communication can be applied to the needs of medical professionals in their work with one another as well as with their patients (cf. Fourcher, 1977). Such educative interactions with medical agents could very well increase their efficiency as well as their understanding of patients.…”

Section: A Therapist Must Then Act As Representative Of a Medical Est...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychological therapist and medicine.

Singer¹,

Fourcher²

1979

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice

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The implicit, insinuating medicalization of psychotherapy practiced by nonphysicians produces rarely articulated binds and confusion of expectations in both therapists and clients. Clinical psychology as a profession must look at the consequences of this process to the work done by its members and to the future of the profession. In support of this professional self-scrutiny, a concept of "psychological psychotherapy" is defended and the dilemma of practicing it in a medical setting is analyzed. Drugs (e.g., mood elevators) exemplify the medicalization of psychotherapy. Implicit in the prescription of such drugs is the view that the client cannot control the disease. This is in conflict with a primary goal of the psychotherapist, which is to help clients understand and take responsibility for their problems. (21 ref)

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Section: A Therapist Must Then Act As Representative Of a Medical Est...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The psychological therapist and medicine.

Singer¹,

Fourcher²

1979

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…But the physician who operates in accordance with the biopsychosocial model moves to the psychosocial level only to function in accordance with the same logic that dominates the physical realm. What has been overlooked is that the causal logic of the physical realm gives way to Fourcher’s (8) notion of “social reciprocity” on the interpersonal realm.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reply to Schmidt: Family: The indeterminacy of translation and the inscrutability of reference.

Denner¹

1987

Family Systems Medicine

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“…It is this notion of subjectivity that Stein and Apprey seem to have in mind toward the end of their work, as they discuss health and illness in a manner comparable to Sacks (8), who argues for medicine to restore the living person, the human subject, to the discussion of health and illness. In this speech community, one would not talk about the interplay of abstract forces, for here transference and countertransference are theoretical fictions that are too “thin” (5) to capture the richness, the concrete details, of the social reciprocity (6) involved as two people define who they are relative to one another.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Context and dynamics in clinical knowledge. Series in ethnicity, medicine, and psychoanalysis.

Denner¹

1987

Family Systems Medicine

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Context and Dynamics in Clinical Knowledge, a somber title for a very approachable, engaging collection of essays documenting the fate of medical encounters, is organized as follows: a number of clinical vignettes presented with the family physician in mind, concerned with family life, drugs, and alcohol; sandwiched between theoretical pieces that explore the central theme, namely the inherent subjectivity of medicine, conveyed by the terms transference and countertransference, which "connote the effect of unconscious forces upon feelings, thoughts, and behavior in any social situation." Thus, "we are seduced, in the widest sense of the term, only by those patients we unconsciously seek to be seduced by-only to blame them for the entire matter." Stein and Apprey are of an obvious psychoanalytic persuasion, a point of view that may seem foreign to family medicine, but these authors win us over with a tone not at all similar to that of a classical analyst. They do not live in dread of instinctual sexual/aggressive urges, nor do they rail against the dangers of becoming overly involved with patients. If anything, we are pleasantly surprised to find out that the instinctual life of the healer is an intrinsic part of the medical encounter that may even be said to fuel the medical interaction. The authors get us to see that a physician without countertransference issues would be dead, a machinelike robot that merely cuts tissue and dispenses medications. Like it or not, the unspoken, irrational desires of the physician, his patient, and the family seem to talk with one another from outside of anyone's awareness, shaping the destiny of the medical encounter. Stein and Apprey are optimists who believe that the physician who can look at himself closely, who can first come to grips with his own humanity, will be able to limit the distortion associated with countertransference. But the physician's subjectivity is only one part of the story.Stein and Apprey are also strongly committed to an ethnographic approach that argues for the role of context, that is to say, practices and traditions, collectively experienced, that define who is ill, who should receive treatment,

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Psychology and somatology: A critical psychology in the medical setting

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

The psychological therapist and medicine.

The psychological therapist and medicine.

Reply to Schmidt: Family: The indeterminacy of translation and the inscrutability of reference.

Review of Context and dynamics in clinical knowledge. Series in ethnicity, medicine, and psychoanalysis.

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