Sociology in the Clinic

Abstract

The past twenty-five years have witnessed a great change in the behavior of sociologists. A quarter of a century ago the majority of sociologists might fairly have been labeled either philosophers or reformers. They dreamed on the one hand of cosmic cycles in the affairs of men; on the other hand, of utopia realized on earth. Today the great majority of sociologists-at least of the younger generation of sociologists-are scientists, attempting to develop methodology and techniques which will yield a greater understanding of, and, we may hope, control over man's social behavior. Many factors inherent in the cultural trends of our generation have contributed to this change. It has not been the result of sociological thought alone, much less the achievement of a particular school of sociology. On the other hand, it was at the University of Chicago, in the graduate department of sociology, in the decade following the war, that the sociologist's changed conception of his role was first clarified and began to yield fruit in the type of research now characteristic of sociological science. The sociology department of the University of Chicago was an exciting intellectual atmosphere to the graduate students of that decade. The older concept of sociology was represented in the person of Albion Small, head of the department, then in the last years of his notable career. The emerging concept of sociology as science was represented by Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess. In his first year the student came under the influence of both points of view. Small was a scholar, in the finest sense of the word. He took the student through the history of sociological thought, requiring that the student document his progress as he went. Small was a logician as well. He insisted that the student should, if he could, reason his way through the documentary evidence. Small, the logician, strove