The dangerous shift in mental health: Are we clients or patients?

KevinMD October 14, 2024
Nicholas Rosenlicht, MD

An excerpt from My Brother’s Keeper: The Untold Stories Behind the Business of Mental Health―and How to Stop the Abandonment of the Mentally Ill.

Throughout history, civilized societies have recognized the vulnerability and suffering of the ill and accordingly granted them special rights and protections, as well as a unique designation: “patient.” This is changing. In the 1990s, when I was involved in negotiating managed care contracts for a community mental health center, I was surprised when insurers insisted that contracts use the term “client;” “patient” would not be allowed. Why were they so insistent? How much does a name matter? As it turns out, a whole lot.

George Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley, describes...

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