Description

Psychiatry is in the grip of radical change, spurred both by dramatic discoveries about the biological basis and treatment of mental illness, and by the increasing difficulties of reimbursement and of competition from other non-medical mental health care workers. Clinical ethnography has strong similarities to person-centered ethnography, a term used by Robert I. Levy, a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist, to describe his anthropological fieldwork in Tahiti and Nepal in the 1960s-1980s and used by many of his students and interlocutors. In practice the two approaches overlap but seem to differ in emphasis. Clinical ethnography seems to be used more by anthropologists writing about sexuality or medical anthropology, while person-centered ethnography, though sometimes addressing these topics, more often focuses on the study of self and emotion cross-culturally. Personcentered anthropology also implies a style of ethnographic writing that emphasizes psychological case studies. Psychiatry is not a popular career choice amongst medical students, even though medical school placements are rated favourably. This has resulted in a significant shortage of psychiatrists. Strategies to rectify this have included the use of short 'taster' placements early in the medical school curriculum and attempts to extend psychiatry services further using telemedicine technologies and other methods. Because they are physicians, psychiatrists can order or perform a full range of medical laboratory and psychological tests which, combined with discussions with patients, help provide a picture of a patient's physical and mental state. Their education and clinical training equip them to understand the complex relationship between emotional and other medical illnesses and the relationships with genetics and family history, to evaluate medical and psychological data, to make a diagnosis, and to work with patients to develop treatment plans. This book provides deep insight into various dimensions of issues relating to the subject.