Psychiatry

Psychiatry has no laboratory value behind its diagnoses, so its main instrument is an ordered description of what can be observed and what is reported. The word to carry away is la alianza, in la alianza terapéutica. In Spanish it is the alliance between states or between people, and it is also the plain band of metal exchanged at a wedding: la alianza is the wedding ring. English keeps « alliance » for the first and calls the second a « ring », so the picture the Spanish term carries into the consulting room — two people who have promised each other something — is invisible in the English one.