We physicians get so focused, so specialized, we become organ doctors not people doctors. We deal with the disease the patient has rather than the patient who happens to have a disease. This is true for any illness and I suspect for the majority of specialists--though I believe family doctors and pediatricians are more aware of the social…

In recent years, communication education has been used as a means of improving the clinician-patient relationship and promoting health. The focus of these interventions has primarily centered on clinician training. An area that has received less focus, although equally important, is training patients to be good communicators. The purpose of the…

States that psychoanalytic therapy is a conversation about the "good life" with particular moral aims. Argues that the analyst attempts to convince the analysand of the advantages of being a decentered social-constructivist who broadens her realm of self-acknowledgement and enriches her moral vocabulary. Concludes that this advocacy of…

The three reviews of the Major Contribution in this issue of The Counseling Psychologist provide thought-provoking critiques of counseling psychology's role in patient-centered culturally sensitive health care. In this rejoinder, the authors situate these critiques within the historical context of enduring paradoxes and barriers confronting…

Concentrates on the joint issues of suicide and euthanasia in the context of the doctor-patient relationship. A new evaluation of suicide prevention and euthanasia, especially as they relate to the training of medical students and doctors, is advocated. (Author/BL)

Major factors which affect physician-parent communication are the physician's knowledge of developmental problems, the physician's attitude toward handicapped children, and the physician's skill in communicating with parents. (Author)

Discusses how "mindbody" medicine has become the most prominent version of alternative medicine in the United States. Notes that it advocates an equality of patient and physicians in the deliberative process of treating illness and maintaining health; it also argues, on scientific grounds, that the body is a vast cellular democracy,…

Family physicians are trained to work with families in the provision of primary medical care, and many provide family counseling. These physicians face many of the same ethical conflicts with which family therapists are confronted. The primary physician-patient relationship modifies these conflicts and creates new and vexing problems. (Author)

Describes the fundamental difference between complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and holistic medicine, highlighting holistic medicine's emphasis on the promotion of healthy lifestyles for practitioners and patients alike. Asserts that offering physicians-to-be more course work in holistic medicine could lay the groundwork for future…

Introduces this special issue of the journal and highlights the contents, which focus mainly on text and talk in the context of healthcare and medicine. (Author/VWL)

Comments on the changing dynamics in work practices. Argues that such changes are not new but have become more visible due to the increased access by outsiders, such as researchers and the media to the increase in litigation claims that exert additional pressure on practitioners. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on alternative self-care practices in terms of collaboration with the primary care physician and individual exploration of self-care practices such as acupuncture, meditation, and nutrition counseling. (JOW)

Presents, side by side, sections of the first author's (a psychotherapist) journal writing during and after her treatment for cancer, and the second author's (a medical doctor) "commentary" thoughts about her words and what they say about the subjective experience of life-challenging illness. Presents this as one way to humanize the encounter…

A man who has lived with Type 1 "juvenile" diabetes since age 4 reflects on medical professionals' insistence on a vocabulary of "control," although diabetes is not really controllable, and suggests that diabetes education would be more effective if it employed a language of self-care rather than a language of control. (SV)

Modern medical practice tends to enable patients to evade responsibility for their own care, and the traditional model robs patients of control and self-esteem. Radical health care reform must include patient empowerment and education. (SK)