Social Psychiatry

The coherence of this field is notably difficult to discover and social psychiatry is too young and developing a field to have acquired precise definition, which would only constrict it and stunt its growth.

Abstract

IN THE SHIFTING sands of professional interests, many new ideas and concepts are issued under the banner of "social psychiatry." Despite the conjunction of the traditional opposites (sociusandpsyche), the term has become accepted through usage. It appears in the names of institutes, professorships, learned journals, and numerous books; a few people even identify themselves as "social psychiatrists." Such widespread usage suggests that a special field has come into existence, one that needs distinguishing from clinical psychiatry by the addition of the adjective "social" and from social psychology (or sociology) by the inclusion of "psychiatry." Yet the coherence (if there is any) of this field (if it is one) is notably difficult to discover. It may be replied that social psychiatry is too young and developing a field to have acquired precise definition, which would only constrict it and stunt its growth. And indeed,