American Psychiatry After World War II, 1944-1994 [Hardcover]

Roy W. Menninger (Editor), John C. Nemiah (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2000 | ISBN-10: 0880488662 | ISBN-13: 978-0880488662 | Edition: 1

The history of psychiatry is complex, reflecting diverse origins in mythology, cult beliefs, astrology, early medicine, law religion, philosophy, and politics. This complexity has generated considerable debate and an increasing outflow of historical scholarship, ranging from the enthusiastic meliorism of pre-World War II histories, to the iconoclastic revisionism of the 1960s, to more focused studies, such as the history of asylums and the validity and efficacy of Freudian theory. This volume, intended as a successor to the centennial history of American psychiatry published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1944, summarizes the significant events and processes of the half-century following World War II. Most of this history is written by clinicians who were central figures in it. In broad terms, the history of psychiatry after the war can be viewed as the story of a cycling sequence, shifting from a predominantly biological to a psychodynamic perspective and back againAall presumably en route to an ultimate view that is truly integratedAand interacting all the while with public perceptions, expectations, exasperations, and disappointments. In six sections, Drs. Roy Menninger and John Nemiah and their colleagues cover both the continuities and the dramatic changes of this period. The first four sections of the book are roughly chronological. The first section focuses on the war and its impact on psychiatry; the second reviews postwar growth of the field (psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, psychiatric education, and psychosomatic medicine); the third recounts the rise of scientific empiricism (biological psychiatry and nosology); and the fourth discusses public attitudes and perceptions of public mental health policy, deinstitutionalization, antipsychiatry, the consumer movement, and managed care. The fifth section examines the development of specialization and differentiation, exemplified by child and adolescent psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. The concluding section examines ethics, and women and minorities in psychiatry. Anyone interested in psychiatry will find this book a fascinating read.

Editorial Reviews

From The New England Journal of Medicine

American Psychiatry after World War II is the American Psychiatric Association's tribute to the first 50 years of the field's second century. Intended to follow in the footsteps of the centennial history of psychiatry, published in 1944, this book is fittingly edited by Roy Menninger, a scion of a family that made important contributions to the story of psychiatry, and John Nemiah, a distinguished emeritus editor of the American Journal of Psychiatry, which recorded so much of what is retold here. In more or less chronological sections, the book covers the lessons of war, the growth of clinical psychiatry after World War II, public attitudes and public policy, and scientific empiricism and specialization. The final section includes chapters on ethics, women in psychiatry, and minorities and mental health.

The text is rich in reminiscence and anecdote. The amateur historians among the authors provide the book with a subtly pervasive Whiggish view, suggesting that science overcomes superstition, knowledge replaces ignorance, and that all the forces at play in the history of psychiatry are those within the field. The chapters on psyche and soma, by Lipsitt, deinstitutionalization, by Lamb, and functional psychoses, by Cancro, are particularly well written.

Only 3 of the 25 chapters were written by professional historians; these are masterly summaries of postwar American psychoanalysis, mental health policy, and antipsychiatry. Too few of the authors are women. The result is "his story" rather than history. However, because the authors had important roles in the tales they tell, as George Makari notes in a cover blurb, this book "will be an important starting place for future historians." It will not be the whole story, for it is not my story, and I have lived in the field for more than 35 of the 50 years under review. For instance, in contrast to the account of the dominance of psychoanalysis, which later was overthrown by biology, followed by a balanced integration of the two, biologic considerations were never out of sight or mind during my professional youth at Bellevue Hospital, and we were taught even then that the so-called organic psychoses carried psychodynamic baggage. The chapters by the three historians, Hale, Grob, and Dain, are models for amateurs: they place events within a broad context of social forces and change. A real history of these years will require the inclusion of more primary data, more distance, and a comprehensive view of psychiatry in the context of society. Until then, this is a useful review of some visions of the recent history of American psychiatry.

Century for Psychiatry, edited by Hugh Freeman, celebrates the turn of the millennium, and as Norman Sartorius notes in the foreword, "the past century... excels in terms of [the] quality and quantity [of our history]... and in the numbers of revolutionary upheavals in our discipline." Almost all of the history of psychiatry, if not its prehistory, is included in this book. Each chapter, which covers a decade, starts with a list of major world events and major events in psychiatry in an attempt to put developments in the field in a broad cultural context. The chapters also include topical sections, biographical sketches, and suggestions for further reading. For example, the chapter that covers the decade from 1911 to 1920 includes sections on shell shock (covered in Menninger and Nemiah's book under the rubric of post-traumatic stress disorder) and the emergence of psychoanalysis; brief essays on Freud, Kraepelin, and Bleuler; and a section on mental retardation.

Unlike American Psychiatry after World War II, this book reflects a clear attempt at a broad international representation of the field. The chapter on the 1960s includes sections on American psychiatry (by Grob), on R.D. Laing, and on traditional medicine and cultural factors in Asia. The chapter on the 1970s, which includes a section on the reform of Italian psychiatry, focuses on developed countries, with little or no mention of South America, Asia, or Africa. Nonetheless, the chapter provides a useful corrective to our North American provincialism. We too often forget that the "open-door policy," therapeutic communities, expressed emotion, convulsive therapy, and the discovery of neuroleptics happened elsewhere first.

With its multiple authors and organization by decades, this book is best read in snatches rather than straight through; it is ideal for the bedside table. Scattered throughout the book are wonderful tidbits -- for example, the Wassermann test was psychiatry's first diagnostic test; Lionel Penrose underwent analysis with Freud; and Arthur Conan Doyle, observing that science grows out of superstition, said, "The quack of yesterday is the professor of tomorrow."

Both books help us see how we got to our present state of the art of psychiatry. Neither one fully places 20th-century psychiatry within our world, or explains how it responds to cultural forces and affects how others see themselves. To do so requires more distance; in the meantime, we can enjoy what we have.

William A. Frosch, M.D.
Copyright © 2001 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Review

"For its comprehensive, balanced coverage, the volume is something of a tour de force, certainly an essential manual for any student of the history of American Psychiatry."-- "Canadian Bulletin of Medical History", "2002"

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 651 pages
• Publisher: American Psychiatric Press; 1 edition (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880488662
• ISBN-13: 978-0880488662
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,905,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful review of the field, March 30, 2009

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Pat McNees (Bethesda, MD) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: American Psychiatry After World War II, 1944-1994 (Hardcover)

This is a marvelous review of psychiatry in America after World War II. I happen to be writing something now for which explanations in several chapters are very useful, which made me feel that it was not a mistake to plunk down a sizeable amount (I'm not used to academic prices!) for the book. Pound for pound, it was worth it. On chapters I knew something about (the NIH Clinical Center and the evolving relationship of NIMH and NIH) the information was concise, informative, and so far as I know accurate. In only one of the chapters I've read so far is the writing below par (in "Psyche and Soma") and in many of the chapters the surveys of unfolding events and trends is fascinating and packed with insights. Particularly helpful are comments on the strange and constantly changing relationship between medicine and psychiatry. A genuinely worthwhile book.