The Reality of Psychiatry: A Glimpse from Bellevue

Weekends at Bellevue enlightens the readers of a very dynamic and instance field within psychiatry that many people are not aware of. Many people who envision psychiatry perceive the traditional psychotherapy by sitting on the couch and talking about the diagnosis. This book reveals the reality of what is looks like to work within a hospital as a physiatrist doing risk assessments. This book dives into depth with many of the common issues physiatrists come into contact with.
Julie Holland, MD portrays a very interesting perspective working at a psychiatric hospital. I can see how many people perceive this book as controversial due to some of the disclosure, judgments or biases she placed on her clients and colleagues. Many different defense mechanisms can be seen throughout the book such as displacement, humor, denial, intellectualization, and isolation of affect, repression, and eventually suppression. Many of these defense mechanisms are not identified within her own pattern of behavior when dealing with stressful

Initially, she would talk about her masculine traits and how she would over compensate around males. In the medical field, the statistics show that it is a male dominated field and although woman are growing ever more prevalent men still hold the highest paid positions and have the highest ratio of men working as doctors or physiatrist. In this field and many male dominated fields, women tend to take on this characteristic because it becomes highly rewarding. In my experience, I have found that in these intense fields, having dominance becomes effective in certain situations. As Julie points out, that it is beneficial but only in some situations and others can have very negative effects. As an individual it is important to utilize both qualities but know when the appropriate and ethical time to use