Take out specific points in the following statement and write them in point form
"Clinical psychology is the study of the diagnosis and treatment of mental
disorders. Historically it has had strong ties to the practice of medicine,
and clinical psychology texts have referred to the people whom clinical
psychologists try to help as ‘patients’. This remains acceptable, but many
psychologists have objected to it on the grounds that it implies that the
people clinical psychologists work with are ill, when many would argue
that the difficulties they face are not diseases. There are various
alternative terms to ‘patient’, and the word ‘client’ is probably the one
most commonly used in psychology as it emphasises that the
relationship between the clinical psychologist and the person whom the
psychologist is helping may be different from that between a doctor and a
patient, and more similar to that between a person offering services (such
as legal services) and that person’s clients. Even within the health field,
there is some debate about the word ‘patient’, and we sometimes see
people who make use of health services referred to as ‘consumers’,
‘service users’ or even simply ‘users’.
In counselling psychology, for some time the person doing the
counselling was referred to by some writers as the ‘helper’, and the
person receiving the counselling as the ‘helpee’. This illustrates the
extent to which psychologists have struggled to find appropriate terms to
refer respectfully and accurately to those with whom they work. There is no single correct way to use language in a discipline as
complex and diverse as psychology. In this book, we have not been
prescriptive about many terms, and we have deliberately not imposed a
uniform standard on the way all words are used. For this reason, for
example, the term ‘patients’ is used extensively in the chapter on
nutrition, HIV/AIDS, TB and parasites (Chapter 23), but the term ‘client’
is used in the chapter on psychotherapies (Chapter 25). As an active
reader of this book (and other writings in psychology), you will have to
make up your own mind about what words are best used where. But
remember: always have a reason that supports your choice of words.
There is one area in which we have been consistent about the use of
terminology though, and this is in the use of gender-inclusive language.
Initially psychologists used masculine pronouns to refer to all people,
male and female. This use of sexist language was then replaced with the
use of the non-sexist pronouns ‘he/she’, ‘him/her’ and ‘his/hers’. However, with the growing recognition of the non-binary gender, these
binary pronouns are no longer sufficient to be inclusive. Therefore the
pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘theirs’ are used in this book to refer to one
person (as well as to refer to more than one person), unless we are
referring to a specific person who chooses to be referred to as either ‘he’
or ‘she’. It is recommended that you also use this form of inclusive
language in your academic writing."
- Clinical psychology is the study of the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders
- Psychologists have objected to referring to clients as 'patients'
- 'Client' is the most commonly used term in psychology
- In counseling psychology, the person providing counseling is referred to as the 'helper'
- There is no single correct way to use language in psychology
- Gender-inclusive language is recommended, using 'they', 'them' and 'theirs' to refer to one person
- Use of 'he/she', 'him/her' and 'his/hers' is no longer sufficient to be inclusive in non-binary contexts.