ONLY A DOCTOR CAN TELL

Te Ao Hou, December 1958, Page 59

ONLY A DOCTOR CAN TELL In other ways the book is unsatisfactory and misleading. For instance he says that “doctors are not necessarily the best” for the treatment of psychosomatic disorders, i.e. those bodily diseases in which disturbed emotions play a large part. He would suggest lay therapists, i.e. those without any medical training. Surely a medical training is absolutely essential in this of all psychiatric fields dealing with such diseases as (in his own words) “peptic ulcer, cardio-vascular troubles, diabetes, asthma, hay-fever, eczema, various skin disorders, rheumatism, eye, ear and throat cases”! ! He says that once the lay therapist has excluded an “organic basis” he can go ahead and cure with psychotherapy. Just how does the lay therapist exclude the organic basis, how does he tell the difference between an anxiety state and a toxic goitre which can present with the same symptoms, and what if it's a bit of both as it usually is? How does a layman diagnose a person who is weak, tired, depressed, fed up and bitter because he has undiagnosed early T.B. or cancer, or having peculiar personality disorders because of a brain tumor. Non-medical psychologists are extremely useful, like tohungas, in their place, but there is a limit to their powers, even in our credulous generation. Both think they can cure psychosomatic diseases, but neither can, and for very similar reasons. The whole idea of directing diseases rigidly into those “of mind” or “of the body” is rubbish. It's always a bit of both and a medical and psychiatric training is required to weigh the various factors at all stages.