The hermeneutic role of the consultation-liaison psychiatrist

Case examples are studied in order to ascertain what best characterizes the work of consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists. Such practitioners play the role of "inter-interpreter": they are able and called upon to mediate between different conceptual worlds. In certain instances this may involve reconciling or choosing between physicalistic and mentalistic interpretations of the case. At other times it is the opposing world-views of patient and staff that must be reconciled. The mediating position of the C-L psychiatrist is thus found to be clinically valuable, and illustrative of the differing discourses that characterize modern medicine.