[Classical and dynamic psychiatry - antithesis or pseudoantithesis? Possible clarification of terms]

Contemporary psychiatry is frequently characterized as "dynamic". This adjective has been used, not only to denote a psychodynamic, psychotherapeutic orientation, but also to accentuate a sharp contrast with the older "classical" psychiatry. Often the orthodox schools of psychiatry are jointly condemned as being adynamic, static, descriptive-classificatory and inimical to psychotherapy. The author traces the development of the concepts "classical" and "dynamic" in the psychiatry of the past 200 years, and attempts to show that they represent a false antithesis.