Danger to Self

Paul Linde

Published by University of California Press 2009

Danger to Self

On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist

Paul Linde

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520944558

Overview
Contents

About this book

The psychiatric emergency room, a fast-paced combat zone with pressure to match, thrusts its medical providers into the outland of human experience where they must respond rapidly and decisively in spite of uncertainty and, very often, danger. In this lively first-person narrative, Paul R. Linde takes readers behind the scenes at an urban psychiatric emergency room, with all its chaos and pathos, where we witness mental health professionals doing their best to alleviate suffering and repair shattered lives. As he and his colleagues encounter patients who are hallucinating, drunk, catatonic, aggressive, suicidal, high on drugs, paranoid, and physically sick, Linde examines the many ethical, legal, moral, and medical issues that confront today's psychiatric providers. He describes a profession under siege from the outside—health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, government regulators, and even "patients' rights" advocates—and from the inside—biomedical and academic psychiatrists who have forgotten to care for the patient and have instead become checklist-marking pill-peddlers. While lifting the veil on a crucial area of psychiatry that is as real as it gets, Danger to Self also injects a healthy dose of compassion into the practice of medicine and psychiatry.

Author information

Linde Paul :

Paul R. Linde, MD, is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and the author of Of Spirits and Madness: An American Psychiatrist in Africa.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Preface: Nowhere to hide Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
1. The ER Doc: Who’s Calling the Shots? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. The Rookie: Bruno’s Man Down Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
3. The Scrambler: How to Prevent a Murder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
4. The Psychodynamo: Learning to Listen with a Professional Ear Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
5. The Jailer: If You Want to Go, You Have to Stay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
6. The Jury: Playing the Suicide Card Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
7. The Clairvoyant: Whose Life Is It Anyway? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
8. The Speed Cop: Talking to Tina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
9. The Witness: Trauma Underlies the Pain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
10. The Judge: Playing God from a Psychiatric Standpoint Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Epilogue: Straight from the Heart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249