Talk:psychologist

What's the difference between psycologist and psychiatrist? Needs usage notes.

They are totally different. I happen to be a psychologist. A psychologist is an expert in psychology, a psychiatrist is a medical doctor with the specialization in psychiatry. Psychology is the study of the mind (though in the US there exists or has existed a movement called behaviorism which wants to restrict its study to the study of external behavior). Psychology has evolved from philosophy. It officially became an experimental science in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt started his first experiments. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine. Its goal is to cure mental disease or at least to care for those afflicted by one.—Red Prince 21:07, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

Since you are one, you'd be better qualified to write a Usage Note. How about adding it to both terms, and perhaps improving the definition of the latter? —Długosz

I was hesitant to do that before because this is a dictionary, not an encyclopedia. At any rate, I have changed the definition of psychiatrist and added a rather lengthy note underneath it, explaining the differences. I have never contributed to the Wikipedia, but someone who does might want to take that note out and convert it into a Wikipedia entry of Psychologist vs. Psychiatrist, or something like that.

On a lighter note, when I was a young psychologist, I worked at a psychiatric clinic and a young psychiatrist, straight out of med school, sighed to me: "The difference between us is that you (psychologists) went to school for only five years, while we (psychiatrists) did it for six. But you spent your five years studying psychology, while we spent our six years studying anatomy, physiology, internal medicine and surgery, and only had a one-year course in psychiatry which we paid no attention to." :)—Red Prince 21:49, 3 May 2004 (UTC)

I agree it's not an encyclopedia. But commonly-confused words should still be pointed out; I think that is a good thing for a dictionary. I suppose ideally it could state one sentence and then point to the encyclopedia entry you postulate.