Recollections on the early days of the Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health from Professor John Cox.

Dr. Katherine Wisner interviewed Dr. John Cox, a founding member of the Marcé Society. Dr. Cox discussed the beginnings of the Marcé Society, his views about the current Society, and his vision for the future.

Empathy, identity and engagement in person-centred medicine: the sociocultural context.

AIMS: This paper considers in outline the complexity of the empathic process from subjective, philosophical and psychological perspectives, and suggests that compassionate empathy is a core requirement of a person-centred approach to health care delivery. Empathy is facilitated by secure attachments in infancy (intersubjectivity) and a subsequent firm sense of self and personal identity. Empathic understanding is enhanced by the medical humanities, but the neglect of musical appreciation in this regard is surprising. CONCLUSIONS: The biopsychosocial model is reviewed, and a body-mind-spirit paradigm is proposed as a more optimal framework for health care delivery in a multicultural society.

Psychiatry for the person.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review considers much recent work focused around the Psychiatry for the Person Programme of the World Psychiatric Association. Yet we have also considered the wider medical context, based on recent publications familiar to us in the fields of ethics, religion, spirituality and person-centred medicine as well as 'medicine of the person' as developed by Tournier. RECENT FINDINGS: There is an urgent need for evaluative outcome studies of person-centred care, including the narratives of service users, rigorous scientific methods and new conceptual models; and for a reformulation of the bio-psychosocial model to incorporate new knowledge in the neurosciences, philosophy, anthropology, ethics and theology. SUMMARY: We suggest that a biosocial/psychospiritual (BSPS) approach to relationship-based healthcare should be more actively considered.

Towards an evidence-based 'Medicine of the Person': the contribution of psychiatry to health care provision.

The purpose of this essay is to outline how the conceptual and clinical approaches of psychiatry contribute to increased understanding about the nature of evidence, and the art and science of medicine. It is based on the author's search for a more integrative medicine, the influence of Paul Tournier's 'Medicine de la Personne' and the Institutional Programme on Psychiatry for the Person led by the World Psychiatric Association. Evidence to support this approach from palliative care and general practice is cited, but new educational and research initiatives from other international organizations, such as the World Medical Association, the World Federation for Medical Education and the World Association of Family Practice and the medical Royal Colleges, are proposed.

Cultural psychiatry, diversity and political correctness in a shrinking world.

It is perhaps unusual for an academic journal like the Lancet to spearhead a 'movement' to advocate the scaling up of mental health services in low-income countries. Yet at the movement's launch in London in November 2007, attended by representatives from World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, donor agencies, as well as the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, it was clear that a seminal series of papers, published in September of last year, was of the utmost importance for world psychiatry and for our planet. The five papers in the series 'Global Mental Health' had the following titles: 'No health without mental health'; 'Resources for mental health: scarcity, equity, and inefficiency'; 'Treatment and prevention of mental disorders in low-income and middle-income countries'; 'Mental health systems in countries: where are we now?'; and 'Barriers to improvement of mental health services in low-income and middle-income countries' (Lancet, September 2007, vol. 370, nos 9590-9593).

European psychiatry: moving towards integration and harmony.

This paper summarizes political and social changes in Europe that directly affect the training of psychiatrists and the provision of mental health services. In Western Europe the demands of service users have led to a closer integration of social and health services, and a closer working and training of health professionals. The European psychiatrist of the future will be an internationalist, familiar with the impact of culture on mental disorders and able to work in a multi-professional team.