Psychiatry Discourse Community

Introduction Psychiatry is a very specific and highly specialized occupation in the medical and psychological realm. Psychiatrists are both a doctor and a psychologist; psychiatrists have to go through medical school and, therefore, administer medication to the mentally ill, but they also counsel them. Thus, they are an interesting discourse community to look at and they have a very distinct discourse. In the discourse community of Psychiatrists, there are many forms of the genre such as journals, websites, and associations that are found to keep communication between them. Genre is defined by Amy Devitt as flexible responses to fit the needs of a discourse community or a social setting. A discourse community is a group that has goals or purposes and uses communication to achieve these goals (Swales). I will take a closer look and analyze the ways in which Psychiatrists communicate through different genres in their discourse community.

Background to the Study

The psychiatrist community is one that is in high demand since it is such a specialized vocation. This makes Psychiatry a

Each journal is published by the APA, but each journal has a separate goal that its authors wish to communicate. The first is called The American Journal of Psychiatric Services (AJP). This journal’s purpose is to communicate to its’ readers new innovative research and treatments regarding the medical side of psychiatry. There are editorials, clinical studies, articles, and many more different types of discourse located within this journal. The APA says, “No other psychiatric journal reaches more psychiatrists with greater impact or immediacy than The American Journal of Psychiatry, the journal that the overwhelming majority of psychiatrists consider essential.” This is obviously a necessity for psychiatrists to read. This is the way that psychiatrist communicates among them the most cutting edge