The author examines four major turning points in twentieth-century
American psychiatry, emphasizing the movement during the post-World War II
period toward a psychotherapeutic/psychoanalytic approach and the emergence
of biological psychiatry, neuroscience, and logical positivism during the
1970s and 1980s. He discusses the impact of Adolf Meyer during the
mid-twentieth century and his ongoing influence. The final turning point
involves a prediction of a late twentieth-century change, including new
directions in nosology, emphasis on combined
pharmacotherapeutic/psychotherapeutic treatments, efforts to create
alternatives to full inpatient care, better outcome data for psychiatric
treatments, and beginning resolution of major boundary problems of current
practice.
Abstract Teaser