Is Empathy Cost Efficient?

Howard E. Book, M.D., F.R.C.P. (C)Authors Info & Affiliations

Publication: American Journal of Psychotherapy

Volume 45, Number 1

https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1991.45.1.21

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Abstract

Psychiatrists and other physicians are currently considering alternate health-care-delivery systems to curtail the escalating costs ofthe existing health-care-delivery organization. This paper addresses the impact of this cost-efficiency focus on our capacity to be empathic by outlining how an emphasis on monetary factors may encourage self-serving financial attitudes within psychiatrists. These concerns over our economic well-being may inhibit an empathic approach to patients. Ultimately, this scenario can result in a view of “unprofitable” patients as bad objects that deprive financially and require countertransference control or abandonment.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published In

American Journal of Psychotherapy

Volume 45 • Number 1 • 1991, pp. 1–156

Pages: 21 - 30

PubMed: 1902067

History

Published in print: 1991, pp. 1–156

Published online: 30 April 2018

Authors

Details

Howard E. Book, M.D., F.R.C.P. (C)^†

Toronto, Canada

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Notes

Presented at 70th Annual Meeting of the Ontario Psychiatric Association, Toronto, January 9, 1990, and 143rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, New York, May 15, 1990.

†

psychiatrist-in-Chief, Women’s College Hospital, Toronto; Senior Psychotherapy Consultant, Inpatient Services, Toronto General Hospital; Associate Professor Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto Medical School. Mailing address: Women’s College Hospital, Rm. 935, 76 Grenville St., Toronto, Ont. Canada M5S 1B2.

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Is Empathy Cost Efficient?

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