The life of psychiatry

Focusing on the definition, scope, and role of psychiatry today, the author discusses whether psychiatry is primarily medical, whether it is overstepping its boundaries in attempting to treat problems of living, and whether it is too involved with social questions. On the basis of an examination of the current scientific base of psychiatry, he predicts that psychiatry will continue to grow in size and diversity, that it will refocus substantially on biological issues, that it will become more humble about what it can do with regard to social problems, and that it will continue to yield new therapeutic measures and techniques.