He is capable of guiding and assisting people with their individual problems. He investigates the emotional implications of symptoms of patients whose difficulties prove to be primarily emotional and mental. It might be said that a psychologist is one who studies his patient's joys and sorrows, his hopes and fears and who is convinced that it is just as important to know what sort of patient has a disease as it is to know what sort of disease a patient has. Type of Illness Treated by a Psychologist Among the many conditions that the average psychologist encounters in private practice are personality maladjustments, phobias and morbid fears, marital troubles, sexual problems, mental depression, alcoholism, feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, health complaints that fail to respond to medication, nervous breakdowns and psychosis. The duration of treatment, just as in physical disturbances, depends upon each individual case.
Some conditions respond to relatively short treatment.
One of the first things a psychologist does, is to carefully scrutinize his new patient. This initial interview is an exceedingly important one, because it gives the psychologist an opportunity to arrive at a tentative diagnostic evaluation of his patient. In a good many instances his first impression turns out to be the correct one. He quickly decides whether his patient is suffering from a deepseeded neurosis or is merely a victim of situational frustration that is much simpler to correct. The psychologist further estimates whether a patient is likely to respond favourably to treatment or is apt to prove resistive and unco-operative.