Description
Psychiatry can help many people who live with mental health problems, but five problematic
trends within modern psychiatry???individualism, self-body dualism, self-symptom dualism,
technicism, and commodification???can lead psychiatrists to treat patients in a way that leads to
fragmentation rather than wholeness. These trends collectively undermine a Christian vision of
what it means to be human: that we are loved and known by God; that we are creatures of
earth who become who we are in relationship with others; that we are wayfarers on this earth,
pilgrims on a journey that starts with God and ends with God; and that we are called not to
control, but to praise God and His wonder, glory, and creation. This Christian account of being
human calls for a radically different vision of psychiatric care: from individualism to
relationship, from self-body dualism to psycho-physical-spiritual unity; and from a focus on
symptom reduction to the broader question, ???What is needed, right now, for the journey??
Presented by: Warren Kinghorn, M.D., Th.D.
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
- List five, problematic trends within modern psychiatry that discourage whole-person care
- Describe three, empirical studies that show the strength of the prescriber-patient therapeutic alliance predicts patients’ responses to psychiatric medication
- Name three dimensions of prescribing and using medications, beyond symptom reduction, that are critical for the wise use of psychiatric medications
