The Doctor, His Patient, and the Illness

Abstract

Introduction. The General Problem. The Patients Offers and the Doctors Responses. Elimination by Appropriate Physical examination. Incidence and Evaluation of Neurotic Symptoms. Level of Diagnosis. The Collusion of Anonymity. The General Practitioner and His Consultants. The Perpetuation of the Teacher-Pupil Relationship. Advice and reassurance. How to Start. When to Stop. The Special Psychological Atmosphere of General Practice. The General Practitioner as Psychotherapist. A: Two Illustrative Cases. The general Practitioner as Psychotherapist B: The Difficult Case. The Apostolic Function-I. The Apostolic Function-II. The Doctor and his Patient. The Patient and his Illness. General Practitioner Psychotherapy. Summary and Future outlook.