Am J Psychiatry 1985; 142:889-894
Copyright © 1985 by American Psychiatric Association
The private versus the public psychiatric interview
NE Zinberg
As videotaping, one-way screens, and other audiovisual aids are used more
frequently for teaching and research purposes in psychiatry, it becomes
increasingly important to define how the fact of observation changes the
traditionally private psychiatric interview. The author defines the
difference between the public and private interview, reviews the pertinent
literature, and describes personal experiences with a variety of
observational situations. He focuses on how observation affects the
concentration of the therapist, how it changes the social uniqueness of the
therapy situation, and how, with the addition of a potential audience, the
one-to-one situation may become more like a group situation, in which
different psychological mechanisms may be employed.
