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This is another in the series of distinctive and valuable reports issuing from The American College of Psychiatrists. In line with the current emphasis on the “remedicalization” of psychiatry, it makes a bold endeavor to outline in detail almost all the points of contact of psychiatry with the rest of medicine. Increasing development of new technologies in medicine has provided unique opportunities for psychiatrists to cement their relationships with medical colleagues in the development of psychosomatic medicine, consultation and liaison psychiatry. Work in dialysis, intensive care, coronary care, and burn units provides psychiatrists with the chance to study new syndromes and make original contributions. The application of psychoanalytic insights in medicine and surgery is a rich field, and it is good for psychoanalysts to remember that their work was born in medicine.
The epilogue by Peter A. Martin is a synthesizing summation of the volume in which he draws significant conclusions and makes forceful predictions. “The phenomena of resistance among medical psychotherapists against maintaining touch with the main body of medicine and the resistance of the rest of medicine to psychiatrists, interested in liaison and consultation psychiatry are significant. In addition, the recent attacks from within psychiatry predicting its demise, the difficulties in clarifying the differences between medical and nonmedical psychotherapists, and the difficulties experienced in defining what a psychiatrist is have quickened concerns for psychiatry's future relationship to medicine. However, some positive signs are appearing on the current scene.” He quotes Braceland as suggesting “that it was time for psychiatry to move back into the mainstream of medicine, retaining, of course, mastery of psychotherapeutic techniques and knowledge of psychodynamics.” “It is psychiatry …, through psychosomatic medicine, which has retained and nurtured its roots in medicine and biology.” Psychosomati