Caring and Compassion in Clinical Practice: Issues in the Selection, Training, and Behavior of Helping Professionals

Although no conscientious practitioner in a helping profession wishes to be regarded as insensitive, too frequently such professionals treat their patients more like illnesses or problems than persons in distress. Seymour Sarason shows that such treatment derives not from intent, but from the ways helping professionals are chosen, schooled, and supervised--and from the institutional policies they are expected to carry out. Sarason aptly suggests how to improve the care that is rendered.