Social work is more widely employed in both psychiatric and general medical situations in America than in most countries, and it has not escaped the American predilection for organization and standardization. This latter tendency includes both social work and social workers themselves. The investigation reported by Miss Robinson in this volume is essentially a protest against established routine or 'type treatments' in such commonly encountered situations as inebriety, desertion and family controversy.

In the consideration of social problems she follows the general approach of social psychiatry as taught by the Institute for Child Guidance of New York, and particularly the formulations of Dr. Marion Kenworthy. The latter in turn freely acknowledges that the entire handling of social case problems should rest on the theory of psychic determinism as stressed in psycho-analysis. Miss Robinson would introduce psycho-analytic principles—especially as expounded by Rank—into social case work