The Psychiatric Interview in Clinical Practice

Abstract

The authors have used a refreshing approach to the teaching of interview technique by serially presenting the primary categories of psychiatric patients, and outlining for each the psychopathology, thepsychodynamics, and the specific problems arising during the interview of that type of patient. The orientation is psychoanalytic, but the authors are sufficiently flexible to be comfortably eclectic in situations which require other modes. The student of psychotherapy will find real assistance in the sections on the management of the interview and the specific techniques of establishing the therapeutic alliance. Special situations are dealt with in a second section on the psychosomatic patient, the ward consultation, the psychologically unsophisticated patient, and the psychiatric emergency. The concluding section gives advice on the problems of the telephone in psychiatric practice, the interview via an interpreter, and note-taking. Very few questions are begged, and the majority of the queries a beginning therapist might have are answered; exceptions