The British Journal of Psychiatry 143: 1-7 (1983)
© 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

The place of psychodynamics in psychiatry

BA Farrell

There is a difference of opinion among psychiatrists in this country about the place of psychodynamics in their subject. They appear to be divided roughly into two groups, the "cons" and the "pros". This paper considers what the attitude of psychiatrists ought to be to psychodynamics, and it does this by selecting and examining the epistemological standing of one example of psychodynamic work. The example is contained in a book by Dr David Malan, entitled Individual Psychotherapy and the Science of Psychodynamics. The examination of this example brings out in what ways the two groups, the cons and the pros, are both wrong and right; and the way in which, therefore, the current difference of attitude is inappropriate, but understandably connected with the uneasy situation in which psychiatrists find themselves.