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Legislative warriors: American psychiatrists, psychologists, and competing claims over psychotherapy in the 1950s
Author(s) -
Buchanan Roderick D.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.10113
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , psychotherapist , psychology , legislature , the arts , identity (music) , psychiatry , social psychology , political science , law , aesthetics , art
American psychiatrists and psychologists have long been close colleagues and fierce rivals. There is no better illustration of this polarized relationship than the chronic tug‐of‐war over psychotherapy. Both groups laid claim to psychotherapy—whatever it was and however it was practiced. Psychiatrists attempted to monopolize psychotherapy despite its ambiguous status as an essential component of the healing arts. After the war, psychologists pressed for a share on the basis of their qualifications and competence, but struggled to overcome the limitations imposed by medical envy. This story lays bare the crucial function of tools and techniques for defining the identity and the boundaries of a science‐based profession. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.