Psychiatry
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Patients with hypochondriasis are usually considered unresponsive to medical reassurance, so that a possible therapeutic use of reassurance in hypochondriasis is too often overlooked. This paper examines medical reassurance as an important aspect of an interaction between the patient and physician, and presents specific features of the relationship between the hypochondriacal patient and his psychiatrist in the light of the patient's reactions to attempted reassurance. Response to medical reassurance may provide important clues for the more precise diagnostic assessment of patients with hypochondriasis; it is particularly important to identify those patients who have a strong underlying need for acceptance, because adequate and repeated reassurance has a therapeutic value for them.
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A computer content analysis of a representative sample of the death poetry of Emily Dickinson is examined in an attempt to identify its therapeutic efficacy. The findings suggest that its therapeutic value lies in an underlying theme that offers a coherent experience with death from which the reader can achieve a degree of mastery and control.
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In this paper I shall present some of the salient features of Soviet psychiatry. I shall first explore the main currents in the history of Russian and Soviet psychiatry, which provide the foundation for the contemporary theory and practice of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. This will be followed by a discussion of the training and research interests of the Soviet psychiatric profession. Much of this analysis is based on both the published Soviet psychiatric literature and interviews with psychiatrists from the Soviet Union, which I have been conducting over the last several years.
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The voluntary postponement of childbearing until after age 30 has become much more common, especially as new opportunities for women have emerged. Little is understood about the psychological impact on parenting and on children of women's reordering of priorities with greater emphasis on work outside the home. The assumption is made and corroborated that older mothers, who have developed competence in the world before childbearing, bring to the mothering experience strengths and shortcomings different from those of their younger counterparts. ⋯ In a study of "on time" and delayed parenting, we found older mothers with established careers to be generally more accepting and less conflicted in the parenting role than were younger professional women. They revealed strengths which were concomitant with their level of maturity and which seemed generally advantageous for their children's development. This study suggests the need for further inquiry into the profound impact on children of parental developmental achievements and indicates that the controversy about working versus nonworking mothers may be of much less importance than an understanding of adult development and its impact on the quality of parenting.