What Makes A Good Psychiatrist?

People often assume psychiatry is about diagnosis and medication. While those things matter, they are not what makes a good psychiatrist.

A good psychiatrist begins with curiosity.

A genuine curiosity is requires to understand another human being. About their history, their childhood, their relationships, their fears, their culture, their losses. A curiosity to explore their experiences that has shaped them long before they ever sit in the clinic room.

A curiosity to peer around the word spoken. Two people may say that they feel ‘fine,’ but the word may mean entirely different things. For one person ‘fine’ may mean contentment. For another it may hide a world of pain. Sometimes ‘fine’ may mean, ‘I do not trust you enough yet to tell you the truth.’ Sometimes it mean they feel so exhausted that they no longer have the language to describe their suffering. A good psychiatrist doe not accept the words at face value. They will try to understand what those words mean to the person speaking them.

Psychiatry is also not assuming we can understand someone after an hour conversation. It requires humility. We recognise that we will never fully know another persons, no matter how experienced we become. People come from every possible background, belief, identity and life experience. A good psychiatrist approaches each without judgement and without assumption. Mental illness does not discriminate, and neither should compassion.

A good psychiatrist should never be paternalistic. Our role is not to control people or decide who they should become. Our role is to advocate for those who are most vulnerable and respect their autonomy and their voice. Even in severe illness people deserve to be listened to and not spoken over.

The best psychiatrist are not the one with the most authority in the room. They are the one who put the patient in the centre. They are the one who say, “Tell me more.” And the ones who listen.