Sociology

Abstract
Certain feelings have been known to raise some uneasiness among caregivers when dealing with their patients. This is an area that has been overlooked by researchers and has therefore not been able to be addressed in graduate training programs in many parts of the world. This article explores to expose the existence of these feelings among therapists and what they say about them. This also reveals that even medical professionals are as vulnerable as their patients are when it comes to relating with the latter. The feelings that will be tackled include feelings of anger, hate, fear, racial discrimination, and being sexually attracted to patients.

Winnicott has elaborated that therapists have always had some feelings of anger and hatred towards some patients. He denies that such feelings dont exist and would eventually serve the needs of the therapist as opposed to the needs of the patient. Subsequent works have shown that anger and hatred feelings have always emerged between therapists and patients especially those related to certain issues as child sexual abuse, HIV and AIDS, ethnicity, among other issues. The therapists in most instances may live in denial of existence of such feelings and this may result to increased tensions and feelings of guilt. Some of these feelings can be understandable as some patients may even challenge the integrity of the most determined and responsible caregiver (Jacobs, 1995).

Therapists have always had their fears over patient attacks for many years. The vast literature available has mainly focused on the fear of assault by the patients but little has been done to document the real incidences and prevalence of the attacks by the patients. A number of researches that have been done have recorded varying percentages of actual assaults as reported by therapist in their samples. The figures have varied from between 20 to around 40. Literary resources available has not only emphasized on attacks by the patients but has also included the malpractice suits related with reporting child abuse, dealing with older patients, and helping those suffering from HIVAIDS. It has also covered the fear of the patients reaction to difficult and painful situations (Pope  Tabachnick, 2010).

Discrimination has also been a long-standing problem in almost if not in all kinds of workplace, not sparing the medical profession. Jonathan Metzl examined medical records of Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and learned that black men were often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia five times higher than any other group during the civil rights era of the 1960s and the 1970s. Metzl said that multicultural training is important but does little to address how assumptions about race are structurally embedded into health care delivery systems (ScienceDaily, 2010).

Until recently, there was no literature on the therapists sexual feelings towards their patients. However, some research done in recent times has revealed that there exist such feelings which leave many therapists feeling guilty, anxious, or confused. Searles gave his personal experiences where he had to confront his sexual, responses during a therapy session. He talks of his feelings of anxiety, guilt and embarrassment in reaction to sexual feelings towards his patients (Pope  Tabachnick, 2010).

The ideas that have been raised by the article as articulated by Pope and Tabachnick are of essence. Therapists are also humans and therefore prone to experience feelings as elaborated by the two researchers. Their analysis of the article brings to the forefront the question of how good can we engage our programs in training the caregivers on how best they can deal with the feelings at the work place. Graduate training related to the experienced feelings can be carried out in many different formats including formalized class lessons, seminars, conferences, field works, among other models. This article has actually given us food for thought as it has brought some insight to an area that has previously been neglected for long.

Conclusion
The article has raised issues that have been neglected and this should be addressed and verified by conducting further research into the areas of concern. Feelings of the therapists cannot be ignored considering that therapists are faced with the responsibility to take care of the patients and thus the issue of feelings should be comprehensively addressed. A study on the general feelings of the therapists and their consequences becomes important at this juncture to ensure proper service delivery to patients by the therapists.