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This is a book by a psychiatrist, who is also a psycho-analyst, on the typical difficulties of individuals in adjusting themselves to typical situations in the society in which they live. It may therefore be presumed to have a twofold purpose: on the one hand, the deeper understanding it conveys to the individual, either directly or through his educators, must be intended to help him master the difficulties he meets; on the other, this same understanding, so far as it reaches those who form his social environment, must be intended to ensure that the difficulties themselves are where possible reduced. Such a twofold purpose thus combines the aims of the psycho-analyst and the social worker, but differs from both in that it is designed to offer a smaller degree of help to a larger number of individuals. In short, its aim is, by disseminating insight, to promote favourable readjustments, both auto- and alloplastic, between the individual and society; and its scope is extensive rather than intensive. The most appropriate name for a purpose of this kind is Social Therapy, or Social Psychiatry, or Sociatry if this abbreviation is preferred.
Social therapy may be a new and indeed embryonic branch of medicine; but those who practise it in books—for its vehicle of therapeutic enlightenment is the written rather than the spoken word—believe in its future, and even look to it for the salvation of mankind from self-destruction.
Dr. Benedek's concluding paragraphs show that she fully shares these ambitious aims. But her immediate objectives are practical and limited. She is concerned with the specific problem of the readjustment of the individual to the many and varied changes in his social environment brought about by the war. Moreover, she addresses herself to a specific audience of social workers, clergymen, teachers and general practitioners in medicine, that is to say, to all those who, while not themselves necessarily psychiatrists, may have to deal professionally wi