Psychoanalysis And Psychiatry

God bless.

>Psychiatry
>if you're not a normie you're sick
Really makes you think.

Someone here on Veeky Forums suggested 'A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis' by Bruce Fink some time ago, I didn't read it yet but maybe it is of interest for OP.

Thanks, I'll have a look

I am a psychiatrist registrar (resident for you americans) and have a significant amount of experience in psych subspecialties (forensic, child and adolescent, general adult - all inpatient and outpatient).

Psychoanalysis is bullshit - as a theory. Still worth reading Jung, Freud et al just for interest. There is a substantive evidence base that demonstrates that any sort of therapy (gestalt, psychodynamic,CBT) produce similar outcomes regardless of the theoretical basis of said therapy. Ultimately, the patient-doctor relationship is most important in 'healing' for psychiatric patients - the therapeutic alliance.

As you are not yet in medical school, for an introduction to psychiatry a good basic general text is:
- Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry - Nancy Andreasen & Donald Black

If you are interested in psychotherapy, I recommend the following books (the latter in particular):
- The Gift of Therapy - Irving Yalom
- Existential Psychotherapy - Irving Yalom

For the art of the psychiatric interview:
- The Psychiatric Interview - Daniel Carlat

To learn more about descriptive psychopathology (best paired with clinical experience - reading about psychosis and observing it in a patient are entirely different things):
- Symptoms in the Mind - Andrew Sims (2nd or 3rd ed is recommended)
- General Psychopathology - Karl Jaspers (Seminal textbook of psychiatry; 103yrs old, but has not been surpassed, particularly in its description of psychotic states. You can get a copy from your uni library, or buy one from Johns Hopkins online. If you're serious about psychiatry, you MUST read this at some point)

More comprehensive textbooks that are quite excellent if excessive at this point in your training:
- Kaplan & Sadock's Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry
- The New Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry

And most importantly - to learn about being human:
- Ulysses - James Joyce

And finally - if you really want a 'cosy life charging 100 quid a session off rich depressives [sic]' then I do not recommend medicine. It is a career that will drain you, dominate you, demanding an enormous amount of time, emotional energy and ethical fortitude.

Medical school alone will expose you to more Type-A high-functioning soulless STEM faggots than you can possibly imagine (to be found amongst peers and supervisors alike - with said supervisors having the power to completely crush your career prospects on a whim).

Psychiatry is without a doubt the most Veeky Forums profession you can possibly have. It is amazing. But it isn't for everyone. The psychiatrist's office is something akin to a secular confessional (with the prescription pad perhaps in place of the Eucharist?) There are moral issues with restraints, treating patients against their will etc. Keep an open mind in regards to other medical specialties, at least until you gain some proper clinical experience. And please - be good, and good luck

I do not recommend Lacan for clinical practice. If you want to meme about Zizek go for it.

Thanks, that's a good help. And yeah, I'm not actually serious about ripping off rich sad people as I've been told Lacan did. Obviously I have 6 years of study ahead, which is plenty of time to decide what I actually want to do with my degree, although psychiatry is definitely what's attracted me to medicine. Thanks for the help

Really interesting list, thank you

And yeah most of the people I'm starting uni with seem like Harry Potter enthusiasts/ golf sociopaths

>I'm about to start medical school with a view to eventually training as a medical psychoanalyst

Hoooho, prepare to get your dreams crushed after your first rotation in a psych ward friendo. Psychiatry is some heavy shit, and that reflects on the professionals. Gotta be a really balanced individual to not become kinda crazy yourself.

Also, psychoanalysis isn't taken seriously by any other than the French Schools. Psychiatry is a lot more based on evidence and data as of right now. It's almost useless studying Humanities, you just gotta know the symptoms of the DM-V and have a little sensibility.

Im a medstud myself btw. My deepest condolences to your mental well-being, OP.

>And most importantly - to learn about being human:
>- Ulysses - James Joyce
Oy vey

Hey dude, I'm a 5th-year myself, how much fortitude you think I need to have if I want to become a Psych myself? I've been through psych round this last semester and doing interviews with clinically depressed and out-the-window bipolars and schizophrenics really made me reconsider it all. You think it's possible to come out of it unscathed? The fact that all my psych teachers seemed to have ingrained a couple of symptoms themselves wasn't really encouraging, too.

Also, how is research in psych, is it a good area to follow in that speciality? Thanks med-bro.

The DSM and ICD are necessary evils but lack diagnostic validity. Psych nosology should be taught more in medschools!

If all you want is to pass your exams/OSCEs, learning diagnostic mnemonics will do.

Mate I fucking love that book

No worries

Good question-- gimme about 10h have to rush off. Will answer if this threads not dead

>claims to have a strong interest
>cites Wikipedia

>psychiatry
>attracted me to medicine

>comic books
>attracted me to literature

Horrible comparison, tbqh

Read modern critical theory for a worthwhile application of psychoanalysis, OP.

I'm actually more of a comic book guy so I'm not really good with comparisons, sry. Isn't that more the responsibility of you """book writer""" folks?

I guess we've all got to work our respective roles in bettering the world of literature, colleague. :))

>I'm actually more of a comic book guy so I'm not really good with comparisons

Should have read good comics then, Alan Moore is one hell of """""writer"""""

lol all modern counseling including CBT is based on the principles of psychoanalysis, and CBT barely outperforms traditional psychoanalysis in treatment of select few disorders. Although desu this speaks more to the basic and undeveloped nature of modern therapy than the strength of psychoanalysis.

>not an actual psychologist
>recommends reddit
kys

First rule to psychoanalysis is to disregard american psychoanalysis and american critique of psychoanalysis. Anna Freud brought psychoanalysis to america as egopsychoanalysis which abandons the premise of true psychoanalysis by "muh consciousness and control".

Second of all psychoanalysis is extremely complicated to perform in clinical practice. In my country is it common to perform a 6 year education AFTER your regular psychology master in order to call yourself a psychoanalyst.

Third of all is to read the classics. Freud. Lacan. Laplanche is especially practical in clinical work.

Fourth is to combine the strengths of narrative- and phenomenological psychology with hardcore psychoanalysis.

Fifth is to - personally - keep your mind abstract. Many modern psychology theories have positivist base in America because of the past 2 decades of empiricist climate. There's a wide array of lame theories such a trait theory, evolutionary psychology etc. which have little to no proper theoretical background but can be meassured in means of statistics based on lame surveys that has gained STEM-lords acceptance because "simple numbers must describe the human mind better than complex theories i do not understand". This effect is aroused by the fact that the research which gains the most funding is research governed by private intrested that has a big, immideate useability (for instance trait theory comparing 2 groups of people by their traits).

>inb4 stemlords and "lmao armchair psychology"

>Or is it for hacks who can't enter "real medicine"

that's the entire field of psychiatry in a nutshell m7

To continue my post:

Psychoanalysis is not a widely popular concept but it does hold weight. There's not many good theories about the subject which hasn't used the basic notions of the human mind which Freud and Lacan developed. For example the object relation. Psychoanalysis is also a integrated part of continential philosophy and basic sociology such as the works of the Frankfurter school.

In other words the notion of the uncousiousness is central to any valid psychological (and sociological) theory and a central critique to absurd ego theories.

Slavoj Memezik is a living example that psychoanalysis is a hot dish.

Speaking about STEM's there also seem to be now STEM-attention to the fact that your personality might be a secondary biological produce which does nothing but socialize in order to get those genes laid. As stupid as this sound it still uses the language of a decentered subject.

>personality might be a secondary biological produce which does nothing but socialize in order to get those genes laid

Eh that's oversimplifying the definitions. Personality is viewed by most people in academia as a combination of both your "temperament" (decided by your genes, are those things you "tend" to) and your "character" (which is the conscious part of your personality, which decides how you treat and handle your temperament and build your Self).

Your interest in psychology clearly taught you shit.

yeah yeah totally i'm just suggesting that there's new radical theories with scientific background which claims personality as a empty veil over a biological/kognitive/neurological background. Not that i agree or anything. It's just to prove the point with a psychoanalysis point of view combined with STEM-shizzle.

>yep, just buy some of these happy pills and everything will be fine.

This has also been debunked and discredited.

From the personal perspective of a person who spent 9 months in a psychiatric hospital with bi-weekly psychotherapy sessions: Psychoanalysis is bullshit. My psychotherapist was old-fashioned, though, and clung to old ideas. As a result, everything I ever told him was twisted around and given back to me as some sort of issue with my mother, problems in my childhood, or family dysfunction. Because he relayed his findings back to my psychiatrist, we never got anywhere, and the general consensus was that I was just being hysterical for shits and giggles.

We got absolutely nowhere.

Incidentally, my mother is a MD, so I know a little bit about ongoing education. Abandon the old shit and keep up-to-date with the modern medical literature. Doctors and psychologists and nurses have ongoing learning that continues for the duration of their career, which keeps them up-to-date with medicine, and if they don't complete it they may lose their practicing licenses.

Fun story: I was always complaining to my psychiatrist and my psychotherapist about stereotyped events involving dizziness, disorientation, and different sensation in my left head/shoulder area. Two years after I got out the psych hospital, I spent a night in the National Epilepsy Centre having a video telemetry EEG. Over 36 hours, I had 100+ seizure events. Fucking people in the psych ward didn't listen, even when I was practically shouting in their faces I HAVE EPILEPSY. THESE ARE NOT PANIC ATTACKS.

Rant aside: look at modern medical literature, keep an open mind, don't narrow your field so much that you see a problem as belonging to it when really you're being presented with a completely different medical issue that should be handled by someone with a different medical specialty. Like a neurologist.

If you and the patient can work out a narrative that makes sense and ends up with the patient feeling better, then that's great.

It's still bullshit, but if that bullshit makes the patient feel better then go right ahead.

>le scary face

Nope. Drug companies just realized that illegal drugs is more profitable.