Fifty years at the Washington School of Psychiatry

The Washington School of Psychiatry, the distinguished institution that publishes Psychiatry, is in 1986 celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its founding by Harry Stack Sullivan and his colleagues. Like most institutions that reach the half-century mark, the School is reflecting on its accomplishments--its contributions to the development of psychiatric thought and to the training of mental health professionals during that period. In presenting this brief history of the School's first five decades, I hope not only to review what the School has been in the past but also to emphasize the elements in the School's history that can and should serve as a solid foundation for the School's continued progress in the years ahead.