You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
During the past twenty years, American psychiatry has been making tremendous strides both in theory and clinical applications. New theoretical orientations have come out on a wave of enthusiasm. Some have waned in professional interest, some have disappeared, some have split into divergent modifications, some have remained as a more stable part of the body of our psychiatric knowledge. Classical psychoanalysis, after a long and difficult growth toward acceptance here, rose to a height of popularity and now sees itself gradually giving way to a growing emphasis on cultural analytic orientations. The organic therapies have been insulin shock, which was replaced largely by electro-shock, which in turn is tending to be superceded by pharmacological treatments. Even the latter have been losing some of the magic appeal of innovation, and all will probably assume a lesser but a more accurate place in our armamentarium.
The output of books and articles on psychiatric and psychological subjects has become a torrent. Much of this production is, of course, redundant and unoriginal; it has even become fashionable to publish compendiums of articles already published elsewhere. While there is always room for a fresh viewpoint, even though it be a different slant on a previous concept, a large percentage of this output is hackneyed, trivial, and contributes nothing.
Nevertheless, the smaller, solid foundation of knowledge and progress has been growing through research into the organic aspects of brain function (biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, and their clinical applications), into the psychological functioning of the individual and its application as newer psychotherapies, and, more particularly, into the application of fields related to psychiatry—philosophy, psychology, sociology, religion.
To bring together this vast body of knowledge into one correlated and readable book has undoubtedly been a tremendous undertaking, and the editor and his board are to be congratulated. Th