Let's Blame the Physicians ... Again: Physician Legalism and Countertransference

摘要

Christy Rentmeester and Constance George (2009) introduce an interesting and potentially helpful twist which incorporates the notion of “countertransference” into the language of medical ethics. They claim that an important ethical and clinical consequence of physician legalism and countertransference for patients “is distortion of clinicians’ perceptions of patients’ decisions and vulnerabilities” (Rentmeester and George 2009, 20). Such distortion, they also claim, results in ethical harm to patients. Their argument, if sound, would expand the horizons of medical and clinical ethics to include not only what physicians actually do, but what they think and feel as well—potentially conjuring up Orwellian images of Guardian “thought police” looking into physician’s minds as well as over their shoulders in clinical encounters.