The lived experiences of South African clinical psychologists in their relationships with psychiatrists in private practice

M.A. (Clinical Psychology)Although they both concur that they treat similar mental health concerns, the professions of clinical psychology and psychiatry have differed since antiquity. The professions have separate epistemological underpinnings that have become increasingly divergent over time so that hostility is rife in the current relationship, particularly concerning the prescriptive privileges divide. To comprehensively understand the lived experiences of the relationship between South African clinical psychologists and psychiatrists in private practice, three clinical psychologists were interviewed and an interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted. Four superordinate themes and two idiographic themes were educed from the interviews: the participants professed to have good relationships with psychiatrists; they observed that different professional settings affect the relationship; they acknowledged that differing mental health epistemologies affect the relationship; they recognised that time and money contribute to incongruence in the clinical psychologist-psychiatrist relationship. The two idiographic themes that emerged from the transcripts are that clinical psychologists fear their engagement with psychiatrists, and that some clinical psychologists choose not to identify with the conventions of the medical paradigm. It is concluded that the six educed themes not only describe the thematic divergence in the professional relationship, but that they also characterise six ways in which the professionals can reciprocally strive for congruence to eschew hostility in the relationship in the interest of ameliorated client care