Citation

Menninger KA. Am. Psychol. 1947; 2(4): 139-140.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1947, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0056668

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This speech given by Karl A. Menninger examines the roles of psychiatry and psychology. Because large numbers of patients are now being handed over to psychiatrists, of which in turn there are but a very small number, psychiatry has become a magical word. It would almost seem as if all medical science might have to be reorganized and reconceived so that instead of being one of many smaller specialties clustering about medicine as a nucleus, psychiatry might become the center, with surgery, gynecology, opthalmology, urology, internal medicine itself ranged about it as adjuvants. The diagnostic function of the clinical psychiatrist, in my opinion, would no more exclude the special techniques of the psychologist in his diagnostic studies than would a capable internist routinely exclude the findings of the roentgenologist. This has led to our irrevocable affiliation. Whether, in the course of events, the therapeutic function of the psychologist will develop and find its proper place in the same way that the therapeutic function of the x-rays has found its place, we can only guess. I should expect it to do so. And so in all our work at this clinic and in this school, I think we should remember that we have a triple function: that of learning to do better what we are trying to do, that of teaching others what we do and setting up procedures worthy of more general trial, and finally that of seeking out more of the answers to the mysteries of the unknown. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)