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What Are You Feeling Doctor? Identifying and Avoiding Defensive Patterns in the Consultation • Friends in Low Places • Letters from the Clinic: Letter Writing in Clinical Practice for Mental Health Professionals

J Salinsky, P Sackin. Radcliffe Medical Press, 2000, £19.95, pp 174. ISBN 1 85775 407 • J Willis. Radcliffe Medical Press, 2001, £19.95, pp 214. ISBN 1 85775 404 2 • D Steinberg. Routledge, 2000, £15.99, pp 130. ISBN 0 415 20504 2

Keywords: Salinsky J; Defensive Patterns; Friends in Low Places; Clinical Practice

`Medicine: only an attempt to rationalise magic.' (Steinberg page 115)

The doctor or healer has always been regarded as a magician. And still is, despite the attempts of contemporary scientific medicine to shake this off. Wise doctors and health care staff accept this multicoloured mantle, along with the stethoscope of power, the healing touch, and the chronicler's pen.

These three books celebrate the magic of medicine in general practice and psychiatry. They open doors to understanding the ways feeling, insight, unarticulated judgment based on skill and prior knowledge, understanding of the narrative (or story) nature of medical and therapeutic consultation, politics, and creativity, can enhance technical experience, knowledge, and skill.

Let's start with feeling—a word boldly placed in Salinsky and Sackin's title. It concerns a group of general practitioners experienced in the Balint method. In "Balint" work, groups of doctors discuss their feelings around specific patients in specific consultations. They . . . [Full text of this article]