Three Dynamic Roles of the Clinical Psychologist on the Acute Closed Psychiatric Ward

This chapter describes three of the more implicit roles of a clinical psychologist in an acute closed psychiatric inpatient ward. Apart from her assigned roles as a case manager and psychotherapist of psychotic patients, the psychodynamically-minded clinical psychologist also functions as an interpreter of patients’ and their family members’ communications, as an informal organizational consultant, and as a regulator of the ward’s climate. These roles are demonstrated with case material, introducing terms such as “paranoia pinball” and the “Iago effect.”