Controversies in psychiatric services in Hong Kong: social workers' superiority and inferiority complexes.

The article presents information on controversies in psychiatric services in Hong Kong, China and the complexes of the social workers involved in that profession. The controversies of psychotherapy still prevail in the psychiatric services. First, there is the controversy of whether psychotherapy is effective or not for people with mental illness. Studies have shown that various types of psychotherapy can reduce the number of consultations and the medication dosage, change the psychological diagnosis, shorten the time in psychiatric and medical treatment and increase patients' satisfaction. Second, there is always a problem in defining psychotherapy. The controversies are concerned with topics ranging from helping, casework-oriented activities to psychoanalytical description. The findings showed that the controversies over defining and perceiving psychotherapy were complicated by social workers inferiority and superiority complexes. Some tended to have specialized definition and others had general definition of psychotherapy.