Psychotherapy and the new psychiatry

It seems appropriate from time to time to pause and reflect on our field of psychiatry. Particularly during a period of rapid growth it is incumbent upon us to draw up some sort of a map that will permit us to maintain a conceptual scheme holding together all facets of our perpetually evolving specialty. While we do construct an evolving body of fact and theory derived from a data base, psychiatry, like other medical specialties, is not a science in and of itself but a congeries of sciences and methodologies within the physician's role. We bring together scientists as well as sciences. Sometimes they speak the same language; many times they are incomprehensible to one another. It is my belief that academic psychiatrists have the particular task of achieving whatever integration of science and practice is possible and teaching it, and this is being done well in many teaching centers.