APPROACH
In discussing his overall approach to psychiatry, Dr. Yates often notes that mental and emotional health and wellness are relative, subjective, and pluralistic. They are relative in the sense that two individuals can experience the "same" situation very differently, depending upon their unique perspectives in life. For example, imagine how differently you might describe the surface of the moon using an earthbound telescope, versus actually walking on the surface of the moon. Your individual perspective, to a significant degree, influences what you see, think, feel, experience, and believe about life.
Mental and emotional health are subjective in the sense that each person thinks, feels, and experiences the "same" events in life in ways that are unique to the individual. For example, if an 8-year old child, a mechanical engineer, and a poet sit down to eat dinner together, consider how differently each might describe the flower they see at the center of the table. Psychiatrically, it is important to take the necessary time to understand the unique ways in which each individual perceives and experiences the world.
Finally, mental and emotional health are pluralistic in the sense that there are many different methods any doctor and patient can use to achieve desired results. The method will depend upon background, experience, stylistic preferences, and the unique context of the situation at hand. For example, consider how many different routes we could follow, and how many modes of transportation we could use, in order to travel from the University of Arizona campus to the top of Mt. Lemmon. In psychiatry, a plurality of approaches are available to any individual at any given moment. Working together, we can understand your unique ideas and goals regarding psychiatric health and wellness, and we can work together to create a treatment plan personalized for your needs.
The psychiatric diagnosis
Psychiatric diagnoses are attempts to identify and describe patterns in the mental and emotional lives of others. They often provide a method by which professionals, physicians, clients, and patients are able to communicate with one another efficiently and effectively in the context of psychiatric research and clinical care.
A sensitive and reliable psychiatric diagnosis may take time to establish in some individuals. In others, a psychiatric diagnosis can be readily and rapidly determined. Many individuals wish to receive a diagnosis and to discuss it in detail. Others do not wish to receive a diagnosis, or may not be interested in discussing diagnostic impressions in the clinical setting. Dr. Yates believes that the underlying key to this process will always be the therapeutic relationship itself, which entails an ongoing effort to understand your unique needs and desires in the treatment setting, and how they might change over time. If you are unsure of your preferences regarding psychiatric diagnoses, please feel free to discuss this topic with Dr. Yates at any time.
Do I need a diagnosis to receive Psychiatric care? Dr. Yates believes that receiving a psychiatric diagnosis can be helpful or harmful, or both, or neither, depending upon the situation and the people involved. A diagnosis can help bring order, clarity, and focus to your mental and emotional life, but it may also place unnecessary constraints upon your understanding of what is real, true, and possible in your life, both here and now, and in the past or future. Very few psychiatric diagnoses are final, indisputable, or permanent. Most psychiatric diagnoses are open to revision, reinterpretation, and resolution over time. Very few psychiatric diagnoses existed as human concepts until roughly 100 years ago. This is a relatively new area of human thought, and as such, Dr. Yates supports ongoing efforts to understand individuals beyond diagnostic categories, while also supporting diagnostic clarification if and when the exercise is likely to help inform treatment and effective delivery of person-centered care.
How important is the diagnosis in the field of psychiatry? Given the nature of psychiatric diagnostic categories today (including the DSM-V and ICD-10, among others), nearly 100% of psychiatric diagnoses are purely descriptive. This means that nearly all of the current diagnostic categories and entities refrain from providing any form of natural explanation which could account for the underlying causal and dynamic aspects of the mental and emotional realities within any given individual. The reason for this is because the historical, cultural, legal, political, medical, biological, psychological, sociological, epistemological, and philosophical situation is complicated, and the more we learn, the more we realize there is more we do not yet understand.
For example, if we order a dish at a restaurant, we can describe what we see in the dish, as well as what our senses tell us about the taste, feel, sound, and aroma of the dish. We can form opinions and memories about our experience with the dish. However, we might know very little about the true list of ingredients, where they came from, why they are added, or the steps in preparing, cooking, and arranging the dish, not to mention how many alternate recipes currently exist for the same dish elsewhere in the world, as well as other versions that have previously existed here and elsewhere across the past several thousand years.
In this way, it can often be a significant struggle to provide and participate in sensitive, specific, precise, accurate, and effective psychiatric treatment. Despite this difficulty, Dr. Yates remains committed to providing his patients and clients with the highest quality of psychiatric care that is currently available. He is also dedicated to maintaining awareness that this work can be further complicated if the psychiatric diagnosis itself is given too little or too great an emphasis, "For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly."
- Khalil Gibran
