Under the golden psi: the franchising of mental health

M. Brewster-Smith (1968) divided the history of psychiatry into three revolutionary periods. The first was the unshackling of the lunatics and the conception of mental illness. The second revolution was the spread of the dynamic theory of Freud with its emphasis on the one-to-one therapeutic relationship. The third revolution was the community mental health movement with its emphasis on bringing treatment into the community. We are now on the verge of yet another revolution. The new revolution is quiet and its leaders come from within the psychiatric profession. The major feature of this revolution is the binding together of medical authority and social treatment models within a corporate structure. The new movement takes the individually oriented private practitioners and shows them that in union there is profit.