Table Of ContentSocial Psychiatry
Social Psychiatry
Edited by
Vladimir Hudolin
"Dr. M. Stojanovic" University Hospital
Zagreb, Yugoslavia
With the assistance of
John L. Carleton
World Association for Social Psychiatry
Santa Barbara, California
SPRINGER SCIENCE+B USINESS :MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
World Congress of Social Psychiatry (8th: 1981: Zagreb, Yugoslavia)
Social psychiatry.
"Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Social Psychiatry, held August 16-22,
1981, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia."
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Social psychiatry-Congresses. 1. Hudolin, Vladimir. Il. Carleton, John L., 1925-
III. Title. [DNLM: 1. Community psychiatry-Congresses. W3 W05385M 8th 1981s]
RC455.W68 1981 616.89 83-4058
ISBN 978-1-4684-4537-4 ISBN 978-1-4684-4535-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4684-4535-0
Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Social Psychiatry,
held August 16-22, 1981, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia
© 1984 Springer Science+ Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1984
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover lst edition 1984
AII rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
PREFACE
It is becoming more and more difficult to publish
papers from international and world scientific meetings.
The causes are partly financial; in addition the number
of meetings held is so large that it is impossible to
find the necessary time for the enormous amount of work
involved in preparing and publishing these materials.
Also the scientific and professional quality of these
meetings is often poor as the same points of view as well
as more or less the same papers, with only slight modifi
cations, are usually presented. The educational system is
also responsible since professionals are required to
publish papers in order to get promoted in their pro
fession and in their institutions. Overproduction of
meetings and papers is often mentioned by many pro
fessionals, but when we look at the professional activi
ties of the critics of these meetings and papers, we can
see that they also behave in the stereotypic way - they
write papers, read them at congresses and publish in
periodicals. The number of periodical publications of
some medical branches - including psychiatry - is enor
mous.
In the light of such thoughts it seems opportune to
evaluate the 8th World Congress of Social Psychiatry and
the papers presented - the papers you are now holding in
your hands. Although such an evaluation is a delicate and
difficult task, I think it should be at least attempted
in this Editorial.
The papers presented at the congresses of the World
Association of Social Psychiatry have not often been
published in full. The complete proceedings were pub
lished of the Congress held in Zagreb in 1971 and now of
this 8th Congress held again in Zagreb. Thus, it could be
concluded that there has been no overproduction of papers
from the World Congresses of Social Psychiatry.
v
vi PREFACE
It has always been most difficult to assess the scien
tific and professional value of a congress and of the
publication of its proceedings. In order to do this at
least in terms of its general traits, it is necessary to
review briefly the reasons for founding the International
and, later on, the World Association of Social Psychiatry
(W.A.S.P.) as well as the professional and scientific
concept of social psychiatry in general.
Today when we look at social psychiatry and the
W.A.S.P. from a long time perspective, the whole thing
looks as simple as Columbus' egg. But, at the beginning
it was not so simple and obvious and we should give due
honor to Joshua Bierer and a group of enthusiastic pro
fessionals, his collaborators, who founded and promoted
the Association.
The idea of social psychiatry appeared after the
Second World War when the entire field of health protec
tion underwent a turbulent period. Psychiatry has not yet
overcome this crisis situation but it still seeks out the
best ways to organize and practice mental health pro
motion and protection.
The end of the war saw psychiatry in most countries
still limited to psychiatric hospitals. Although psy
chiatry obtained the status of a branch of medicine after
the Second World War, in many Medical Faculties psychi
atric clinics were not founded.
Repressive character and protection of society from
the so-called mental patients caused psychiatry to be
attacked from various sides. It was attacked by society,
by the patients and even by the medical profession, psy
chiatrists and others. Suddenly, a great number of other
professionals (nurses, psychologists, social workers,
sociologists) became engaged in psychiatry as it became
obvious that psychiatry, although having significant
medical aspect, was not entirely a medical branch. Social
and even political interest in psychiatry increased.
Psychiatry found itself in a difficult situation
without an elaborated scientific basis, without scien
tific methodology and without a scientifically-based
therapy. Every new specialist brings in his own new
ideas, elaborates his own methodology, his own therapy
and his own terminology, thus creating a modern Tower of
Babel. Latterly the positive influences of W.H.O. have
begun to be felt as it attempts to establish mutual under
standing and agreement in order to resolve the existing
chaos.
PREFACE vii
Psychiatry is also under attack from the so-called
antipsychiatric movements, although this is only another
attempt at a specific developmental path in this diffi
cult scientific field which observes man as a whole -
somatically, sociologically, politically and spiritually.
From all these dynamic occurrences an idea is crystal
lized that man is primarily a part of general social
systems, from his family to the widest social groups.
Importance of communication and interaction in the family
and in the society for mental health is being noted;
thus, the idea has emerged that a man, whether healthy
or ill, cannot be viewed outside the context of these
general systems - in the first place, his family and
society. Accordingly, health protection and promotion
should be incorporated in the basic human community.
Such considerations gave rise to group procedures,
therapeutic community, sector psychiatry, community psy
chiatry etc. But none of these systems succeeded to
manage health promotion and protection successfully.
Besides, resistance from traditional psychiatry conflicts
with new attitudes appearing in practice and requested by
society.
Social psychiatry, thus, gradually developed as a
comprehensive system in an attempt to organize mental
health protection and promotion, including the treatment
and rehabilitation at the local community level.
What in the beginning looked like a revolutionary
movement has become today the one and only psychiatry as
it has become obvious that there cannot be any other
psychiatry but Social Psychiatry.
Social psychiatry, conceived in this way, includes
all professional and scientific activities of contempor
ary psychiatry.
The scientific, professional and human levels of
social psychiatry are most suitable for the possi
bilities, needs and knowledge of today. It is obvious
that, regardless of the various theoretical viewpoints, a
better psychiatry than this does not exist. In the mean
time, the societies of numerous countries have undertaken
measures to make legislation more suitable to existing
needs and possibilities. In many countries health legis
lation has developed and the organization of the practice
of mental health protection has changed. Some countries
have gone so far in this respect that it has caused a lot
viii PREFACE
of problems, while in some other countries legislation
lags behind the possibilities and the needs of the
society. This also causes considerable trouble.
Any world congress in any scientific field and thus
also social psychiatry, should present the real situation
and achievements in that respective field as well as
indicating the direction of future developments. This
must not be presented as better or worse than actual
reality because any forging of reality has a bad effect
upon heaith protection.
For that reason, the 8th World Congress of Social
Psychiatry presents our needs, our possibilities and our
achievements. No matter how much we wish the situation in
mental health promotion and protection to be better than
the Congress papers presented in it, that is only wishful
thinking. The Congress has made us see where we are,
enabled us to evaluate the trends in comparison with our
past congresses, as well as to visualize our future devel
opment.
That is why this Congress was organized and a multi
professional group of participants was invited. They were
given the opportunity to present the conditions of their
particular fields as well as their views upon social
psychiatry. Considering the choice of papers for this
book, our criterium was to include all the papers which
satisfied minimal technical and professional require
ments. Some papers have not been included, only because
the authors did not send their papers prepared according
to the provided instructions in time. It is obvious that
because of the great number of papers presented it was
impossible to evaluate in detail individual papers and
that they do not reflect the work of the editorial board.
The professional and editorial board does not share all
the views presented in these papers but has tried only to
present the level reached by the Congress and by contem
porary mental health protection.
Finally I would like to thank Mrs. Elisabeth Cann for
correcting the papers and succeeding, at least in
general, to correct the language, which in such an inter
national meeting having the participation of people from
various countries, is extremely difficult.
I must also thank Plenum Press who has shown interest
and willingness in undertaking such a difficult and
responsible task. My acknowledgements also to Renata
Biondic and Jurica Vucicevic for typing the material,
PREFACE ix
then to the members of the editorial board, especially to
Dr. John Carleton. Finally my thanks to Djurdjica Cerinic
who prepared the typescripts and coordinated and super
vised the typing.
Vladimir Hudolin
CONTENTS
Social Psychiatry Today 1
Vl. Hudolin
Evolution of Social Psychiatry: Impact on
Civilization 9
J. L. Carleton
Education for Living: Overall Goal of
Social Psychiatry 19
G. Vassiliou
Resolution Against Nuclear War 23
J. H. Masserman
A Message Delivered on Behalf of the Special
Representative of the United Nations
Secretary-General for the International
Year of Disabled Persons at the Special
Seminar at 8th World Congress on
Social Psychiatry 27
Politicization of Psychiatry and Political
Psychiatry 31
Vl. Hudolin
Unconscious Approaches to World Suicide 37
J. H. Masserman
The Scientific Status of Psychiatric
Diagnosis 49
J. H. Masserman
xi
