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Vagaries of a Term

NORMAN W. BELL, PhD; JOHN P. SPIEGEL, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1966;14(4):337-345.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

IN THE SHIFTING sands of professional interests, many new ideas and concepts are issued under the banner of "social psychiatry." Despite the conjunction of the traditional opposites (socius and psyche), the term has become accepted through usage. It appears in the names of institutes, professorships, learned journals, and numerous books; a few people even identify themselves as "social psychiatrists." Such widespread usage suggests that a special field has come into existence, one that needs distinguishing from clinical psychiatry by the addition of the adjective "social" and from social psychology (or sociology) by the inclusion of "psychiatry." Yet the coherence (if there is any) of this field (if it is one) is notably difficult to discover.

It may be replied that social psychiatry is too young and developing a field to have acquired precise definition, which would only constrict it and stunt its growth. And indeed, . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BELMONT, MASS; BOSTON

From the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Social Science Department, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass (Dr. Bell), and Department of Social Relations, Harvard University (Dr. Spiegel).

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Oct 25, 1965.

Reprint requests to McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass 02178 (Dr. Bell).

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