In recent months, a Committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association drafted a reply to the President's Commission on Mental Health which had requested suggestions to assist in the identification of mental health problems and the ordering of priorities for their solution. The members of the Committee are Drs. Herbert Gaskill, Herbert Schlesinger and Robert Wallerstein.
After considering the issues and priorities for solutions to the mental health needs of the nation, the Association suggested three broad target areas for support, with the highest priority going to those aspects of the program that have the greatest potential for prevention. The suggestions were as follows:
The availability of psychological treatment to all individuals, adults and children who need and want such treatment. It was stressed that the early diagnosis and treatment of afflicted children needs particular emphasis because it offers the greatest potential for prevention.
The teaching of basic psychoanalytic concepts of personality development to all health professionals, particularly primary care physicians and teachers of children from pre-school to high school.
Basic and applied research in child development and human behavior. In its letter the Committee pointed out that psychoanalytically informed research, particularly in child development, has been extremely useful in conceptualizing critical phases and developmental crises when early intervention can reduce the later vulnerability of children to external stress and thus reduce mental illness.
“It is essential”, the Committee's letter emphasized, that governmental programs that have an impact on mental health “take account of these principles and research findings, both to increase the likelihood of the success of such programs and to contribute to a positive ideal of mental health.”