Don’t Let Them Take Your Mind and Spirit:

On Being Called a “Provider”

By Karen Shore, Ph.D. “The language of managed care represents the dominance of the impersonal industrial culture in health care, a culture that has begun to eradicate the humanitarian

culture to which we held. It is no accident that the MC industry uses the term

“behavioral health care” rather than “mental health care,” and focuses on

“functioning” rather than on the totality of a person’s behaviors, thoughts,

feelings, dreams, memories, attitudes, capacity for relatedness, fears, hopes,

and potentials for satisfaction and happiness.”

It is also no accident that the MC industry calls us and our colleagues from

other disciplines “providers” rather than “clinicians,” “practitioners,”

“professionals,” or “caretakers.” I feel a deep demoralization each time I hear

one of us use the word “provider” because I know this means that that

person’s mind has begun to be influenced by a dominating culture, that that

person has begun to accept the dominance of MC and its culture, even if

he/she hates MC. And I know that his/her perceptions of self and others has,

without awareness, begun to change.” An important essay on the relationship between naming and political power, addressing the current battle for hearts and minds (and pocketbooks) in my profession.