Essay - Abstract Clinicians Have Always Been Reminded or Expected to Perform...

Abstract

Clinicians have always been reminded or expected to perform examinations of mental disorders and draw diagnoses from objective factors, such as symptoms. But recent studies showed that, despite this traditional outlook and persistent reminders, clinicians still rely or choose to use their personal theories in exam*****ing and diagnosing patients with mental disorders. Among the personal theories in popular ***** are Alfred Adler's ***** the Existential Theory. Adler's theory draws ***** an *****herent motivation to self-perfection *****d social interest, while the ***** Theory restores *****' lost, damaged or unrecognized autonomy, freedom and responsibility for their own actions, lives ***** destinies.

Introduction

The influence of clinicians' personal theories over their diagnosis ***** mental disorders w***** the subject of a recent study conducted by two experts on 35 clinicians and 25 clinical trainees (Holmes 2002). The experts, Dr. Woo-kyoung Ahn of Vanderbilt University and Nancy Kim of Wesleyan University, asked the subjects to ***** four basic tasks, namely, draw the relationship between the symptoms of certain disorders; identify the relative importance of these symptoms with the disorders; diagnose some hypothetical cases; ***** then test the participants' recall of the ***** several hours after diagnosis. The study showed *****, despite considerable efforts placed ***** leaders in the field ***** ***** psychology to keep ***** objective, clinicians' ********** beliefs still exert major influence on diagnosis. The findings of the ***** were published in the December 2002 issue ***** ***** Journal of Experimental Psychology General (*****)..

Clinical psychologists have always been expected to base their diagnosis ***** a checklist of symptoms, but the findings revealed that clinicians' diagnosis ***** heavily from their individual theories (Holmes *****). ********** are likelier to make a diagnosis of mental disorder when the person displays symptoms central to the clinician's ***** theory of the disorder than if the patient's ***** were peripheral to those of ***** ***** *****. Furthermore, all the subjects of the study, who were practicing clinicians and graduate students, held different ***** complicated *****ories about ***** disorders, ***** schizophrenia, major depression and anorexia to diverse kinds of *****ality disorders and that individual theories did not have many things in common. There was no basic understanding or agreement on the causes and ***** ***** theorizing can be erratic or lead to conflicting *****s. In addition, clinicians' recall of the symptoms was influenced by the ***** they held. If the symptoms were peripheral, clinicians tended to forget them more (*****).

***** the personal theories used by clinicians are those ***** Alfred Adler ***** existentialism.

Personal Theories: Adler and Existentialism

Adler. - Adler was born in Vienna, Austria on February 7, 1870 (Boeree 1997). He could ***** walk until he was four years old because of rickets and also nearly died of pneumonia at five. His physical condition impelled him to acquire a medical degree from t***** University ***** Vienna in 1895. He began working as an ophthalmologist and then switched to general practice in the lower-cl*****s part of *****.. Most of his p*****ients were circus performers who suffered from