This is a lucidly written, deeply thoughtful and candid memoir that deciphers psychiatry s recent vicissitudes and historic transformations. Recounting both early and later life experiences, including over two decades as Medical Director, Mel Sabshin, psychiatry s venerable leader, intellectual catalyst, and diplomatic facilitator, illuminates his many and diverse roles while shepherding the profession in its transition from an oracular craft to a respected evidence-based science. Every mental health professional, beginner or practiced alike, will find this chronicle to be an enlightening odyssey, one consequential to his or her own biopsychosocial work. --Theodore Millon, Ph.D., D.Sc., Dean and Scientific Director, Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology
Mel Sabshin skillfully weaves three stories into one: the revolution in American psychiatry in the last half century, the development of the modern American Psychiatric Association, and his personal and professional biography. Sabshin was central to each, and provides an informal insider's perspective that is available nowhere else. A must read for anyone who wants to understand where psychiatry is today and how it got there. --Robert Michels, M.D., Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, Former Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Former Dean and Provost for Medical Affairs, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
There is no-one better qualified to present the view from the bridge of American psychiatry than Mel Sabshin, a towering and influential leader in the process of change. In this unique and invaluable book, Sabshin first invites us into the world of his formative years, and of the family and mentors who helped shape his ambitions and goals. He then shares his personal vision, over many decades, from the helm of academic and organized psychiatry, of the many forces that shaped the changing face of the field. Sabshin tells it like he sees it, and he sees it with wisdom and the authority of center stage. --John M. Oldham, M.D., Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff, The Menninger Clinic, Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Menninger Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine
As Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association from 1974 to 1997, Melvin Sabshin, M.D., brings a unique perspective on the history of post--World War II psychiatry to Changing American Psychiatry: A Personal Perspective.
He describes in detail two extraordinary periods of change, the first stimulated by laudatory efforts to understand the high rate of psychiatric casualties among World War II veterans and to provide treatment for them. Psychiatry grew quickly during the postwar years, considerably influenced by the immigration of many Central European psychoanalysts. Gradually, however, psychiatry began to weaken its ties to medicine and lost much of its public respect. By the 1970s postwar optimism had been replaced by widespread concern that psychiatric practice was being dominated by unsubstantiated formulations rather than reliable evidence. Psychiatry was dramatically impacted by enormous pressure for therapeutic accountability exerted by a managed care reimbursement system. The profession recognized the need for a new direction and resolved to change.
In this well-crafted account, Dr. Sabshin describes how the profession has become a more respected part of medicine. The combined use of evidence-based psychotherapy and psychopharmacology will become a central part of future psychiatric practice. Dr. Sabshin encourages psychiatric professionals to continue changing the field so that it can emphasize an empirically based, carefully enunciated, biopsychosocial model that has the potential to revitalize American psychiatry.
From the Back Cover
As Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association from 1974 to 1997, Melvin Sabshin, M.D., brings a unique perspective on the history of post-World War II psychiatry to Changing American Psychiatry: A Personal Perspective.
He describes in detail two extraordinary periods of change, the first stimulated by laudatory efforts to understand the high rate of psychiatric casualties among World War II veterans and to provide treatment for them. Psychiatry grew quickly during the postwar years, considerably influenced by the immigration of many Central European psychoanalysts. Gradually, however, psychiatry began to weaken its ties to medicine and lost much of its public respect. By the 1970s postwar optimism had been replaced by widespread concern that psychiatric practice was being dominated by unsubstantiated formulations rather than reliable evidence. Psychiatry was dramatically impacted by enormous pressure for therapeutic accountability exerted by a managed care reimbursement system. The profession recognized the need for a new direction and resolved to change.
In this well-crafted account, Dr. Sabshin describes how the profession has become a more respected part of medicine. The combined use of evidence-based psychotherapy and psychopharmacology will become a central part of future psychiatric practice. Dr. Sabshin encourages psychiatric professionals to continue changing the field so that it can emphasize an empirically based, carefully enunciated, biopsychosocial model that has the potential to revitalize American psychiatry.
About the Author
Melvin Sabshin, M.D.,,/b> was Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association from 1974 to 1997. Dr. Sabshin studied medicine at Tulane University. After postgraduate training and a research post at Tulane s Department of Psychiatry, he received an appointment at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, a center of psychiatric research and psychodynamically oriented practice, where he completed psychoanalytic training. In 1961 he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Sabshin is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
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