Psychiatrist as a Variable in the Process of Interview and Treatment

THE doctor–patient relationship is fundamental to the practice of medicine and psychotherapy. The psychiatrist's attitudes and feelings in the interview were examined in an experimental design at the Lafayette Clinic, a psychiatric training and research centre. A Likert-type questionnaire with 39 items which explored the conscious subjective reactions of the therapist to the patient was utilized with 16 resident physicians immediately following each doctor's initial psychiatric interview on 19 consecutive and random patients.