ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses general practice takes place within an organisational context that needs to be taken into account. It describes the simple ABC organisational model, referred to in the dialogue identifying some levels of professional activity. The chapter provides a commentary on the dialogue using psychoanalytic concepts, particularly containment, which are essential to mental health work, and discusses the implications of its absence in the “new National Health Service” (NHS) conditions, for patient and general practitioner alike. The ABC model differentiates three levels of professional activity in much the same way as thinking about families requires separating the generations in one’s mind, while being fully aware of how they link and interact. The chapter discusses a wider context by juxtaposing Jameson’s lucid, 1991 analysis of our postmodern, Western culture, with Dr Gerada’s vivid, 2016 descriptions of everyday general practice. The dates span the key developmental period of the new NHS and its internal market.
