SIMPLIFYING PSYCHIATRIC EXPERT EVALUATION IN LABOR CLAIMS: A PROPOSAL FOR SYSTEMATIZATION IN THE ANALYSIS OF CASUALITY

The psychiatric expertise in labor claims constitutes an extra challenge for the medical expert, since it presents a high degree of subjectivity. The present study proposes a methodology for sorting and systematizing expert elements, allowing for greater clarity in the arguments and basis of the conclusions.

Psychiatric Disorders in Pediatric Psycho-Oncology

For patients and families affected by pediatric cancer, distress is often part of a larger picture of adjustment and resiliency. Pediatric psychosocial oncology clinicians should be proficient in recognizing clinically significant psychiatric symptoms, syndromes and disorders, in order to differentiate these from normal distress and adjustment. Access to child and adolescent psychiatric expertise is an essential component of care for children with cancer and their families. It is feasible and important to differentiate psychiatric syndromes from normal trajectories of adjustment to a life-threatening diagnosis. The chapter reviews psychiatric presentations in children, and youth with cancer and treatment considerations, with a focus on the role of the pediatric consultation-liaison/psycho-oncology psychiatrist on a multidisciplinary team.

Observance of the Probative Value of the Psychiatric Forensic Expertise - Guarantee of Avoiding Judicial Errors in Criminal Proceedings

Psychiatric forensic expertise is a type of evidence with a high degree of scientificity, objectivity and credibility, which places it at the top of the evidence hierarchy in criminal proceedings. The practice of the courts reveals a series of cases in which the conclusions of the psychiatric forensic examination were not taken into account at the time when the court issued a verdict, considering that the grounds on which the expertise was eliminated as relevant evidence in those cases is sometimes debatable. This article analyses the probative value of forensic psychiatric expertise from the perspective of the conflict that arises in judicial practice between the principle of scientificity of the evidence and the principle of sovereignty of the judge in assessing the evidence. It analyses the effects that scientificity has on the judge's actual possibility of assessing conclusiveness of the expertise by comparison with other evidence. The conclusions are that the psychiatric forensic expertise has the greatest probative force among all the evidence that could attest to the mental state of the victim or the accused; this evidence can be disregarded by the court at the time of ruling only if there is evidence with equal probative value to combat it; ordering new evidence by the court (supplements to expertise, new expertise, objections, requesting clarifications from the expert) to verify the credibility of the conclusions of the initial expertise should be done only after ensuring a framework that guarantees the compliance with the principle of scientific management of evidence.

POLYVICTIMIZATION & POLYTRAUMATIZATION: LEGAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Polyvictimization is experience of multiple, different kind victimizations that range from child maltreatment to school bullying and beyond. Polytraumatization inclu­des trauma that are not limited to interpersonal abuse, for example, car accidents, natural disasters etc. These concepts are in turn related to cumulative harm and multi-type maltreatment which are discussed later in the article. Polyvictimization and polytraumatization highlights the shift in abuse research and practice from single trauma to multiple trauma analysis which significantly impacts forensic and clinical judgment on causality of post-trau­matic reactions. On the other hand, legal professionals in different coun­tries still ask mental health practitioners to identify spe­cific emotional consequences that are linked to specific civil and/or criminal case. Whether it is called psycho­logical damage, psychological injury, sequela etc. – le­gal specialists want and need to prove causal relations between wrongful act and psychological injury. Unfortu­nately, it is almost impossible to make a strict judgment on sequela causality if polyvictimization is identified. The current article explains several theoretical notions regarding polyvictimization and emphasizes implications that need to be taken in to account when conducting abuse research and clinical and/or forensic victim as­sessment. Latvian legal system and practical problems in forensic psychological and psychiatric expertise is briefly discussed.

The Influence of ‘Psychiatrist Friends’ on British Film Censorship in the 1960s

This article will demonstrate the significant influence that psychiatric consultants exerted on the policy of the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) and, as a result, on cinematic representations of mental illness and psychiatric practices during what Arthur Marwick (2005) called the ‘long 1960s’. Drawing upon extensive research at the British Board of Film Classification archives, this article complicates dominant narratives of British censorship in highlighting how John Trevelyan, appointed as Secretary of the BBFC in 1958 and frequently depicted as a liberalising force, deferred to psychiatric expertise outside the BBFC in making decisions about film censorship and certification and, in some instances, scriptwriting and editing. This article will explain how a proliferation of American and, later, British films dealing with mental illness caused BBFC examiners to lose confidence in their ability to make censorship decisions in the mid-1960s. Initially, this loss of confidence prompted consultation with the influential British mental health organisation, the National Association for Mental Health (NAMH) and, subsequently, a small group of trusted medical professionals, referred to as ‘psychiatrist friends’, who decided on cuts and certification of films including The Caretakers (1963), The Collector (1965) and Repulsion (1965). As a result, the BBFC moved from a default position of prohibition to one of enabling ‘serious’ films that promoted mental health awareness and discussion of contemporary mental health issues. This article aims to offer new insights into the policies, processes and practices of the BBFC, to contextualise censorship within historical debates about mental health representation and to highlight the mutually productive interactions that took place between the fields of mental health and cinema.

The importance of embedding psychopathology and phenomenology in clinical practice and training in psychiatry

SUMMARYPsychiatrists live and work in complex, clinically challenging times. Their paperwork is geared increasingly towards defensive practice, key performance indicators and risk assessment forms. Somewhere in the process, detailed understanding of patient experience and clinical formulation based on key psychiatric expertise and skill in mental state examination have taken a backseat. I review the history behind the Present State Examination, the realisation in the 1980s of the need for a common psychiatric language internationally and the current position on phenomenology in psychiatry curricula in the UK. I conclude that it is time to think seriously about a return to basics in psychiatric phenomenology and psychopathology.