Psychology and community mental health: The medical muddle.

Religion and Conceptual Models of Behaviour

“…He interpreted the evidence as indications that religion acted in a causal way and was not merely correlated with certain kinds of behaviours and events. This is consistent with Brown's (1966) conclusion that religious beliefs are categories by which people explain, interpret and cope with the natural world. Stark (1963), writing on the incompatibility of religion and science, suggests that men with strong religious commitment are seldom scientific and have not often been major contributors to the ongoing scientific quest.…”

“…By way of interpretation we conclude (on the basis of the content of the BABI items) that these subjects consider the causes, 'cures' and nature of many human behaviours in terms of 'will', 'sin', 'prayer' and virtue and that they look to the Church and its leaders for behavioural guidance. Their use of the theological model of behaviour is congruent with Brown's (1966) conclusion that religious beliefs are categories used to explain, interpret and cope with the natural world. T h e 10 behavioural referents used in the BABI (such as 'being over-critical ', 'being over-confident ',…”

Psychotherapy as a means of social control.

“…183]." The medical model fosters a mystique about who can perform psychotherapy by setting forth requirements regarding education, supervised clinical training, a personal psychotherapy experience, certification or licensing, etc., that are irrelevant to effective behavior change activities (Brown & Long, 1968;Hurvitz, in press;Spray, 1968;Stachyra, 1969). The "disease ideology" inhibits mental health research (Taber, Quay, Mark, & Nealy, 1969), and it is used to support reactionary policies such as incarceration and neglect of emotionally disturbed poor and the use of public funds to train psychiatrists who enter private practice and leave public institutions without professional help (Albee, 1971).…”

Training Clinical Researchers in Psychology.

“…nal Professional Psychology and considerable discussion of the report of the National Council on Graduate Education in Psychology, which called for independent professional schools of psychology (Matulef & Rothenberg, 1968); and finally the president of APA sounded the possible appropriate death knell for clinical psychology as we now know it (Albee, 1970). In between, a large number of soul-searching articles on how to train a clinical psychologist, and what he is (and isn't) or should be (and shouldn't be), have been published; for example, in the last five years the following references have been published in the American Psychologist: Thelen and Ewing (1970); Knott (1969); Arnhoff and Jenkins (1969); Schofield (1969); Hersch (1969); Albee (1968); Peterson (1968); Brown and Long (1968); Bergin, Garfield, and Thompson (1967); Mariner (1967); Tyler and Speisman (1966); Jarvis and Nelson (1966); Garfield (1966). A sense of dejd vu and bored skepticism are understandably the most likely responses to any further contribution to this area.…”