Beneath the White Coat: Doctors, Their Minds and Mental Health

Abstract

W hether you have worn the white coat, worked with the white coats, or done your best to avoid them, there is something valuable here for you. Focused on medical professionals and their unique training, this book has a broad reach to all those who work in the mental health field. Psychiatrists currently make up 7% of AGPA’s membership (personal communication, November 16, 2021, AGPA Office). Most groups are run by nonphysicians, but it is hard to find a therapy group without at least one patient on medication, which means that all group therapists are likely sharing at least some of their patients with physicians. Induction into the tribe of medicine poses challenges that this book summarizes well, and learning about this process serves both nonphysicians and physicians. We wanted to illustrate this by writing this book review together – as a psychologist (Dr Dale Godby) and physician psychiatrist (Dr Tina Ali Mohammad). Medical and psychological education contrasts in several ways. For example, in medical school, Dr Ali Mohammad heard that receiving a psychiatric diagnosis could complicate the licensure process for oneself and it was not uncommon to hear the phrase, “physician heal thyself” as a way to promote self-sufficiency over seeking psychological help. In contrast, during Dr Godby’s training as a psychologist, he was encouraged to be in psychotherapy, and those students who did not seek therapy for themselves were thought to be avoiding an important part of their training. He recalls a teacher saying, “to be a good therapist we need to go down deeper, stay down longer, and come up dirtier.” International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 72: 293–300, 2022 © 2022 The American Group Psychotherapy Association, Inc. ISSN: 0020-7284 print/1943-2836 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2022.2047553