The author examines the reasons that have been offered in support of a
pressimistic appraisal of psychiatry's future. The consequences for
psychiatry of increasingly detailed knowledge of the interaction of
psychological and physiological processes are emphasized, and the author
concludes that psychiatry will continue to play a dominant role in the
study and treatment of medical and surgical illness. Thus, although the
field is in a transition period, it is certainly not moribund.Abstract Teaser