ABSTRACT
Behavioral pediatric fellowships are available in 15 major medical institutions in the United States. In general, these programs focus on the psychologic, social, and biologic determinants of behavior and learning disabilities in children. Child psychiatry's participation in the formulative stages of these programs is considered vital. The authors caution psychiatry to avoid concentrating its energies upon these socially and developmentally inclined behavioral pediatricians to the detriment of all pediatric house staff.
Subject(s)
Behavior Therapy/education , Child Psychiatry/education , Physician's Role , Role , Adolescent , Child , Child Development , Child, Preschool , Curriculum , Disease/psychology , Humans , Infant , Pediatrics/education , Social Adjustment , SpecializationABSTRACT
A discussion of "The Transsexual Wish in a Psychotic Character" by Katherine MacVicar, M.D. Patients in increasing numbers are seeking sex-reassignment surgery. The topic receives coverage in both the lay and professional press; many advocate surgery as the only "cure". Clinical study reveals that these patients have borderline personality organization and are seeking to discard bad and aggressive features and to replace them with a new idealized perfection. Surgical procedures in these cases can usefully be conceptualized as a new type of psychosurgery.
