The following thesis will contain a theoretical and empirical reflection and discussion of the way that Danish psychiatry treats outpatients. In 2011 “treatment packages” were implemented into ambulant psychiatry. The packages entail an advanced planned treatment that is structured in relation to a specific diagnosis.
The purpose of this thesis is to discuss these treatment packages and their quality. This discussion will be based on a theoretical basis of psychodynamic and cognitive psychotherapy respectively. The difference between the two theoretical traditions will serve to fulfill the goal of keeping an open mind-, and avoiding a narrow interpretation biased by an uncritical theoretical argumentation. The two treatment strategies will be discussed comparatively, and within this framework the package treatments will be discussed.
The empirical part of the thesis consists of two semistructured interviews with patients of the psychiatry who both have had contact with treatment packages. On the basis of these interviews an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis will follow, and the themes that are created will be used in the discussion of the packages.
The conclusions that will be drawn in the thesis entail arguments about how the descriptive and categorical way of thinking of the packages creates a rigid psychiatry that focuses on the diagnosis instead of the whole person. Another argument, based on the interviews, is that ambulant psychiatry undermines the importance of the relationship and working alliance between patient and therapist.
In relation to the discussion between cognitive and psychodynamic psychiatry, a stated argument is to put the relation and need of the patient before the method rather of the other way around. It is augmented that both methods has its advantages and that recognizing flexibility in each method is advisable.