Table of Contents

Preface
Part 1 The Ambiguity of Psychiatry
1. Psychiatry's Domain
2. Mind & Brain
Part 2 Attempting ot Dea with Ambiguity
3. Explanation & Understanding
4. Conscious & Unconscious
Part 3 Implications of Ambiguity for the Conduct of Psychiatrists
5. Hebraic & Hellenic
6. Patient & Client
7. Autonomy & Paternalism
Part 4 Conclusion
8. The Ambiguity of Psychiatry
Notes
Index

Promotional Information

A lively exploration of mind and brain, conscious and unconscious, patient and client.

About the Author

Phillip R. Slavney, M.D., is the Eugene Meyer III Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Paul R. McHugh, M.D., is a University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry and a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Reviews

A brief and gracefully written set of essays about a few of the philosophical controversies that have shaped current psychiatric thought... The authors appear to wish to give psychiatry back its 'soul,' and they make a strikingly cogent case that this is a necessary step in its reconstruction. Hospital and Community Psychiatry [I]t is essential to revisit the fundamental thinking that underlies psychiatry. The clearly written, carefully detailed chapters of Polarities provide an essential foundation in satisfying this need. The American Journal of Psychiatry