INDIVIDUAL OR INSTITUTION: THE DILEMMA OF THE PSYCHIATRIC PROFESSION

As science became the dominant force in the western world, the concomitant social and economic changes generated so many new problems that older organizational schemes proved to be inadequate. While the administrative procedures of the past were based on limited goals and resources, the modern procedures are based on more ambitious goals, inducing a growth of institutions that has outpaced the growth of the population as a whole. In view of these large scale social trends, the psychiatristʼs role has changed, and he has to face the question of whether, as a depersonalized agent of large scale institutions, he can continue to take the sick individualʼs interests to heart.Today, the psychiatrist stands at the interface of organization and individual, and, unless he makes it his specialty to convey to persons what science and human knowledge have to offer, and unless he represents the interest of the human being in the dehumanized organization, he is likely to become a superfluous man.