Trends in Urban American Psychiatry: Practice in Chicago in 1962 and 1973

Abstract

A 1973 mailed survey of all psychiatrists practicing in Chicago utilized many questions identical to those used in a 1962 survey of this same population. By 1973, more psychiatrists were working in the public sector than in 1962, but by 1973, their interest in a social and community therapeutic orientation had decreased. The psychoanalytic orientation remained strong, though interest in analytic training had declined. In both private and organizational practice, the average Chicago psychiatrist was seeing more Blacks, poor people and Catholics, and fewer Jews, in 1973 than in 1962. Societal changes associated with these changes in psychiatric practice are discussed.