Changing American Psychiatry

Psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, other mental health workers, behavioral scientists, and university medical and neuroscience professionals will benefit from this articulate insider's view of post-World War II psychiatry in "Changing American Psychiatry: A Personal Perspective" by Melvin Sabshin, M.D. Dr. Sabshin served as Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for 23 years, from 1974 to 1997, during a period of perhaps the greatest change in psychiatry since the World War II produced a dramatic modification of practice.The author describes in detail two extraordinary periods of change, the first stimulated by laudatory efforts to understand the high rate of psychiatric casualties among World War II veterans and to provide treatment for them. Psychiatry grew quickly during the postwar years, considerably influenced by the immigration of many Central European psychoanalysts. Gradually, however, psychiatry began to weaken its ties to medicine and lost much of its public respect. By the 1970s, postwar optimism had been replaced by widespread concern that psychiatric practice was being dominated by unsubstantiated formulations rather than reliable evidence. Psychiatry was dramatically impacted by enormous pressure for therapeutic accountability exerted by a managed care reimbursement system. The profession recognized the need for a new direction and resolved to change.