문화에 적합한 정신과 진료 ㅡ한 의료기관에 대한 현지조사 ᅳ

Culture-relevant Psychiatric Practice : Case Study of a Clinic

There often is a considerable distance between the public’s (including patients) view of illness and that of modem medicine. Consequently, the patients illness behavior often is not in accord with the physician’s expectation. This is especially true in psychiatric medicine. This study was undertaken to better understanding what factors in psychiatric practices in Korea today are positively correlated with patient s expectation and result in good outcome. The study was conducted by the authors using participant observation for one year(August 1990-July 1991) at a local psychiatric clinic (Dr. Se-Jong Lee, the director), which is well known and much sought after by the patients. Our observations suggest that the effectiveness and popularity of Dr. Lees approach may be in this flexible combination of the traditional Oriental-Korean sensibilities such as yin-yang and cold-hot theories with Western ideas such as constitutional disposition ( “diathesis”) and functional frame of central nervous system. Pragmatic and symptom-oriented, he flexibly combines medicatioa simple and down to earth dialogue, as well as moderen technologies including EEG and CT scan. In short it is his pragmatism and apparent blending of Korean and Western approaches that chartacterize his approach.