Mistreatment of Patients' Families by Psychiatrists
WILLIAM S. APPLETON M.D.1
1 Psychiatrist, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
Many schools of psychiatric thought implicate the patient's family in aggravating and even generating his illness. Thus psychiatrists often blame and mistreat the family, through either open hostility or vague innuendo; the family in turn becomes less willing to cooperate in the patient's treatment. As a solution, the author recommends that psychiatrists be taught to treat families with sympathy and understanding in order to win their confidence and cooperation and with respect rather than subtle contempt.
