This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

The Function of Theory Construction

Arnold J. Mandell, MD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1967;16(4):437-440.

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

AS A psychotherapist and a golfer, I have been struck by the similarities of both the situational challenges and coping operations in these two apparently quite diverse activities. Both situations are tension-filled and allow for minimal motoric discharge (unlike most sports, in golf no direct aggressive discharge against an opponent is allowed; unlike most medical specialties, the psychiatrist is not allowed to act out his tension on the body of his patients). Both escape complete understanding as to the determinants of success or failure of the undertaking; the adequacy of performance in both activities is a complex function of the participant's emotional state; both are filled with continuous, searching self-examination; both are done in personal isolation with much internal dialogue; and both are associated with desperate, ever shifting efforts to master the almost metaphysical relationship between cause and effect using theory construction. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Los Angeles

From the Department of Psychiatry, Center for the Health Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Nov 7, 1966.

Read before the American Psychiatric Association meeting, Atlantic City, NJ, May 7-14, 1966.

Reprint requests to UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, Los Angeles 90024 (Dr. Mandell).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?