Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139:155-164
Copyright © 1982 by American Psychiatric Association
A program for late twentieth-century psychiatry
RM Unger
The author argues against conceptions of the current state of psychiatry
that either accept eclecticism as natural or treat some specific biological
or psychodynamic model as the true core of psychiatry. He presents a
unified program for biological and psychodynamic explanation and therapy.
The biological aspect of this agenda supports a unitary view of mental
illness but dissociates this view from reductionist premises. The
psychological aspect treats particular psychodynamic theories, including
Freud's, as special cases of a more basic account of affect and
imagination. The program has unequivocal diagnostic, explanatory, and
therapeutic implications as well as a larger social meaning.
