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A plea for re-illusionment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jeremy Holmes*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Exeter, UK, email: j.a.holmes@btinternet.com
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Abstract

Type
Columns
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2010

Burns' cri de coeur Reference Burns1 about the thoughtless severing of in-patients from community responsibility will strike a chord in colleagues of his demographic. Our generation saw the special contribution of the consultant psychiatrist as encompassing continuity of care across time and space in ways unique to our discipline. We hoped to see our patients holistically through the vicissitudes of illness, recovery, health and relapse, creating, when things went well enough, a deep life-enhancing mutual knowledge. Yes, we were spread thin, the workload was tough at times, and Jacks of all trades (psychotherapy, group and systemic therapy, psychopharmacology) must sometimes give way to master-craftsmen. But has psychiatry traded an easier life for a diminishing and less satisfying role? How long before an impoverished state finds our profession largely redundant? Are we in danger of becoming our own grave-diggers? Or is all this merely nostalgia seasoned with generational grumpiness? Re-illusionment please!

References

1 Burns, T. The dog that failed to bark. Psychiatrist 2010; 34: 361–3.Google Scholar
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