Are psychiatrists great healer-philosophers or a mere part of the machine?

[Meticulous Man]

IMO (and I have some experience) they are among the stupidest life-forms on the planet. Meds, for them, are everything. And they are in a position of authority.

[Meticulous Man]

The average psychiatrist I've had to deal with has an intelligence and sensitivity roughly comparable to that of cops.

Maybe also celebs like Freud and Jung were just full of crap and too blinded by their position in society.

[Provost Harrison]

Yes. Definitely yes.

[The Mad Monk]

The average psychiatrist I've had to deal with has an intelligence and sensitivity roughly comparable to that of cops.

Maybe also celebs like Freud and Jung were just full of crap and too blinded by their position in society.

Perhaps because, like cops, their job requires them to handle trash people.

[Aeson]

It's been about 30 years since I last interacted with one, but my impression of the 4 I interacted with was:

Caring but naively useless (meds), caring but self-awarely useless (meds), uninterested in anything except meds, mad scientist (ECT, meds).

[Aeson]

Best psychiatrist: lots of sun, building sandcastles and body surfing. Eating healthy natural food. No meds.

[N35t0r]

The average psychiatrist I've had to deal with has an intelligence and sensitivity roughly comparable to that of cops.

Maybe also celebs like Freud and Jung were just full of crap and too blinded by their position in society.

I haven't had bad experiences with psychiatrists, but not particularly good ones either.

Also, while Jung was a psychiatrist by training, Freud was not, he was a neurologist. They are furthermore best known for their work on psychology: Freud for psychoanalysis and Jung for analytical psychology. Maybe you're conflating the terms?

[Meticulous Man]

[Meticulous Man]

Also, while Jung was a psychiatrist by training, Freud was not, he was a neurologist. They are furthermore best known for their work on psychology: Freud for psychoanalysis and Jung for analytical psychology. Maybe you're conflating the terms?

OK, I wasn't aware of Freud's formal education and just classed him as a "doctor who treated patients for mental problems".

I've also had to deal with psychologists and they are in the unenviable position of being parts of the system while their entire field is considered pseudoscientific fluff. But I guess they do receive their paycheck.

[N35t0r]

I love this map:

[The Mad Monk]

Psychologists are scientists who study the mind; psychiatrists are medical personnel who treat the mind.

[Meticulous Man]

That's a really idealizing picture of what's going on in a psychiatric hospital

[The Mad Monk]

I didn't say they were good at it.