Women\u27s Psychology

FEMALE PSYCHOLOGY, AN ANNOTATED PSYCHOANALYTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY Edited by Eleanor Schuker, M.D., and Nadine A. Levin son, D.D.S., F.A.C.D. New Jersey, The Analytic Press 1991, pp.67

Empathy and Patient–Physician Conflicts

Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing “difficult” patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about another’s particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing one’s own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients’ verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact

Beyond Detached Concern : the cognitive and ethical function of emotions in medical practice

This dissertation analyzes the ideal of detached concern in medical practice. This ideal arises as an attempt to bridge the gap in medicine between managing diseases and recognizing patients as persons. First, physicians take their emotions to interfere with making objective diagnoses and making every aspect of their practice scientific. Second, physicians idealize detachment as the stance of the impartial moral agent who is able to care for all types of patients out of a sense of duty. Third, physicians also recognize the need to be empathic; however they conceive empathy as a purely cognitive capacity that is compatible with detachment.Chapter one analyzes the features of emotions that contribute to and also threaten rational agency. Chapter two analyzes Descartes\u27 theory of the emotions, which is the outcome of his scientific method for understanding reality. Descartes\u27 legacy to physicians is not only the capacity to build powerful mechanistic models of diseases, but the failure to account for human experience via such models.Chapter three considers the turn to Kantian ethics to restore respect for patients as persons to the practice of medicine. Kantian impartiality is shown not to require detachment. Further, the practice of Kantian ethics in medicine is impoverished when physicians are not affectively engaged.Whereas chapters two and three show the limitations of the arguments for emotional detachment, chapters four and five give positive arguments for the role of emotions in medical practice. Chapter four examines the cognitive and affective aspects of clinical empathy, and argues that emotions are essential for directing the empathizer to imagine what the patient is experiencing. The final chapter argues that given the importance of emotional engagement and the fact that emotions can obstruct rational and moral agency, physicians need to regulate their emotions without detaching themselves from patients. Physicians can best meet the goals of medicine by cultivating overarching emotional attitudes like curiosity and courage to effectively move themselves towards a more realistic and respectful appreciation of patients

Before it is too late: professional responsibilities in late-onset Alzheimer's research and pre-symptomatic prediction

The development of a wide array of molecular and neuroscientific biomarkers can provide the possibility to visualize the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at early stages. Many of these biomarkers are aimed at detecting not only a preclinical, but also a pre-symptomatic state. They are supposed to facilitate clinical trials aiming at treatments that attack the disease at its earliest stage or even prevent it. The increasing number of such biomarkers currently tested and now partly proposed for clinical implementation calls for critical reflection on their aims, social benefits, and risks. This position paper summarizes major challenges and responsibilities. Its focus is on the ethical and social problems involved in the organization and application of dementia research, as well as in healthcare provision from a cross-national point of view. The paper is based on a discussion of leading dementia experts from neuroscience, neurology, social sciences, and bioethics in the United States and Europe. It thus reflects a notable consensus across various disciplines and national backgrounds. We intend to initiate a debate on the need for actions within the researchers’ national and international communities

Groupthink and Caregivers\u27 Projections: Addressing Barriers to Empathy

Groupthink, in which team members have reasons to share group mis-perceptions and collectively misread patients, is not a problem of lack of caring, but rather difficulty in maintaining perspective during a conflict. Dr. Halpern shares how reflective self-awareness and empathic curiosity can help overcome such challenges and improve patient care

Empathy and patient-physician conflicts.

Physicians associate empathy with benevolent emotions and with developing a shared understanding with patients. While there have been many articles on managing difficult patients, little attention has been paid to the challenges physicians face during conflicts with patients, especially when both parties are angry and yet empathy is still needed. This topic is especially important in light of recent studies showing that practicing medicine increasingly requires physicians to manage their own feelings of anger and frustration. This article seeks to describe how physicians can learn to empathize with patients even when they are both subject to emotions that lead to interpersonal distancing. Empathy is defined as engaged curiosity about anothers particular emotional perspective. Five specific ways for physicians to foster empathy during conflict are described: recognizing ones own emotions, attending to negative emotions over time, attuning to patients verbal and nonverbal emotional messages, and becoming receptive to negative feedback. Importantly, physicians who learn to empathize with patients during emotionally charged interactions can reduce anger and frustration and also increase their therapeutic impact