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The author makes critical use of official statistics on our rapidly growing school-age and adolescent population, on the increasing population in the older decades, on the projected future needs of the country for physicians and surgeons, and on the predictable future supply of medical students. From these data he calculates the discrepancy between the most conservative estimates of the country's future need for practitioners of psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy and the most optimistic estimates of the future supply of medically trained psychiatrists. The author assumes further that for many decades the early use of psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy will continue to be our major preventive device. The conclusion is inescapable that the existing discrepancy is destined to become even larger. To fill this gap the author proposes that a new profession of doctors in medical psychology should be trained under the joint auspices of medical schools and universities, in close association with physicians, surgeons, and psychiatrists, to be licensed to practice psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy, but again only in clearly defined association with physicians. He views the development of such a profession as the only means of closing the gap; and urges that such a