At 03:16 PM 9/24/1997 +0100, you wrote:
>Do psychiatrists have the right to use the Christian name of their patients?
>                       Ross Skelton (Dublin)
>
I believe that analysts and psychiatrists should in this matter, as most
others, behave with ordinary courtesy, perhaps with a slight tilt toward
conservatism. In the U.S. this means addressing someone by their surname
until one knows them well or is invited to do otherwise. I think
psychiatrists, and doctors generally should avoid condescending to patients
by calling them by their first names as a implicit indication of superior
station. In the U.S. where custom is confusing in this matter (one gets
telephone calls beginning "Hi Bob, I'm Jim Johnson from Jones Securities
and I'd like to introduce myself and my firm" the rules of ordinary polite
behavior are sometimes unclear. Also in working with young adults and late
adolescents it may be confusing. When I started my first analysis, at age
19, and my analyst referred to me as "Mr. Levy" it took a while to figure
out who he was addressing, as no one had ever addressed me in that way
before. Certainly in the patient is offended by being addressed by his
first name he should not be so address.
Robert M. Galatzer-Levy, M.D.   Owner psychoan and Psychoanalytic BBS lists
122 South Michigan Avenue              Telphone 312 922 5077
Suite 1407                         FAX 312 922 5084
Chicago, Illinois 60603            e-mail: [log in to unmask]