New methods of psychiatric treatment

There have recently been many innovations in the field of psychiatric therapy. Many of the new techniques challenge some of the underlying assumptions of conventional psychiatry. Some methods, such as reality therapy and behavior therapy, attack the symptom directly, rather than assuming there is an underlying disorder which must be treated. Another, crisis therapy, stresses brief intervention aimed at rapidly reestablishing previous levels of function, with relatively little concern for insight into developmental causes. Or, as in family therapy, the pattern of family interaction rather than the individual may be the primary object of study and treatment. Each of the new methods of treatment has certain advantages as well as disadvantages. They have stimulated psychiatry to explore innovative methods and should make it possible eventually to incorporate in the treatment of each individual those techniques which will most effectively meet his needs.