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PSYCHIATRISTS
Graham Bishop

I was talking to my doctor the other day. We tend to have wide-ranging conversations, often triggered by events in the local news.

In a few days earlier a disgraced psychiatrist we both knew had been forced to resign his position as Medical Director of a local hospital.
“There is something strange about psychiatrists,” I said, “They are always getting into trouble. “

“Yes,” she replied, “It’s funny. I went to a class reunion the other night. All the bright ones were there; they were all brain surgeons or cardiologists, or something distinguished. Then there were the ordinary ones like me, mostly family doctors or administrators and then there were the peculiar ones .They were all psychiatrists. It wasn’t immediately obvious, as they were all urbane and polished, but once it started to register, the correspondence became quite think uncanny… now what’s your problem?” I had a feeling she felt she may have said enough, or even too much. We moved on to my problem, but she had set me thinking, and when I got home I started doing a bit of research.

It soon became apparent that psychiatrists are much more likely to be arrested than librarians or geologists, or any other sort of professional. Their ethical standards are distinctly questionable. Where I live there are probably about 100 psychiatrists. One of them abandoned his patients, and his job as medical director of a local hospital, without notice. He simply gathered up some papers and walked out. Another, the Head of the University Department of Psychological Medicine, is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife. He was having an affair with his senior lecturer and at least one other woman at the time.

One of the most remarkable cases in New Zealand was the Linda Aster affair. This bogus Polish psychiatrist was appointed to Nelson Hospital on the strength of recommendations from several other psychiatrists. During her tenure (its not absolutely clear what sex she was) she prescribed electro-convulsive therapy for some of her patients. After attending a medical conference in Nice, France on paid leave she disappeared. She never returned to New Zealand.
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Dr Graham Bishop
22 Erin St
Roslyn
Dunedin 9010
New Zealand