Doubts about Being of Value: An Important Aspect of Countertransference in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

Abstract

Doubts about being of value to medically ill patients and their referring physicians is not an uncommon emotional reaction of consultation-liaison psychiatrists to the medical environment. Both realistic perceptions of negative attitudes of non-psychiatric physicians as well as unrealistic doubts about their potential uesfulness, which may be projected upon and attributed to their non-psychiatric colleagues, can contribute to this unsettling response. This reaction may interfere with effective collaboration between consultation-liaison psychiatrists and their non-psychiatric colleagues and needs to be understood and mastered.