A psychiatrist is a physician (i.e., has complete medical training) who specializes in disorders of behavior, mood, thinking, etc. A psychologist is someone with a graduate school education in the psychological sciences. Clinical psychologists specialize in treating disorders of behavior, mood, thinking, etc., as do psychiatrists, but from a psychological, rather than physical, perspective. For example, psychologists do not use medication as treatment.
The analytical dimension Belkacemi Mohammed Lazhar should also be noted, with respect to the investigated states of mind: psychologist=I feel like a computer; psychiatrist=I am a computer. 😹
Conclusion: Imo, psychological science, e.g. in the tradition https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-Wundt, can be seen as a serious attempt to research into human behavior.
Psychiatry should be treated with greatest caution ⚠️ because it is mis-used dominantly as mental policing by prescription.
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The field of psychopathology is still in the making, in terms of scientific progress to understand the natural and social mechanisms of mental illness and disease.
Psychologists and psychiatrists are both mental health professionals, but their training, methods, and scope of practice differ. Psychologists typically hold a doctorate in psychology and specialize in psychotherapy, psychological testing, and research. They are trained to assess and treat emotional and psychological disorders, primarily through talk therapy. A psychiatrist, on the other hand, is a doctor who specializes in mental health. They can prescribe medications, perform medical procedures, and provide psychotherapy.
Overall, while both psychologists and psychiatrists play key roles in mental health care, their training, approaches, and areas of expertise differ, resulting in varying contributions to the field of mental health. Psychiatrists bring a medical perspective and the ability to prescribe medications, while psychologists focus on treatments, testing, and research to help people with emotional and mental health issues.
Let me add another distinction which applies in the US, where we don't have a national health insurance system. In the US system, any role is typically played by the professional who costs the least. As psychiatrists cost more than psychologists, who cost more than clinical social workers, much psychotherapy and case management is done by social workers and psychologists do much assessment and psychotherapy. In many US healthcarre systems, psychiatrists do only medical assessments and medication management.
Psychiatrists and psychologists are mental health professionals, but due to the emphasis in their training, they tend to provide different services.
From my work experiences with them in the U.S., I notice:
Psychiatrists are medical doctors who provide diagnoses and medication monitoring, although some of them do some psychotherapy (e.g., individual, group, and family therapy, etc.).
Most psychologists, non-medical professionals, provide psychotherapy (i.e., talk therapy) and some also offer psychological assessment.
Psychiatrists are medical doctors who are specialized in mental and behavioral disorders and they treat the patients with medications and behavioral therapy. On the other hand most of the psychologist are not medical doctors and they treat the patients with behavioral therapy counselling etc