The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has updated its Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including with new information specifically addressed to individuals in the European Economic Area. As described in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, this website utilizes cookies, including for the purpose of offering an optimal online experience and services tailored to your preferences.

Please read the entire Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. By closing this message, browsing this website, continuing the navigation, or otherwise continuing to use the APA's websites, you confirm that you understand and accept the terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including the utilization of cookies.

×
ArticleNo Access

Emotional Disturbance and American Social Change, 1944-1969

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.126.1.21

The great social shocks of the mid-60s—war, riots, and assassinations—have convinced many of America's young people that our society is sick. While acknowledging that evidence of society's malfunctioning is tangible and irrefutable, the author believes there is something profoundly illiberal in the mental set that finds sickness all around us. Psychiatry, which grew up in a liberal historical context, is currently torn between a defense of its traditional standards and a temptation to appease the new tendencies. But he believes that in spite of pressures for quick answers and slipshod methods, there is no excuse for panic: the liberal temper of mind has not lost its relevance.

Access content

To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.