| Abstract: | 30 psychologists and psychiatrists surveyed mental health programs in the USSR, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, and East Germany through visits to 19 programs and facilities and contacts with professionals and private citizens. The USSR and several of the other socialist countries have developed sophisticated community health programs. In the USSR, psychiatry subscribes to a physiological conception of mental illness, emphasizing somatic treatment and environmental manipulation. Psychotherapy tends to be directive, superficial, and rational. Psychology is traditional or academic in nature, with emphasis on teaching and research, particularly in child and educational areas. The role of the clinical psychologist varies among countries, although the organic and somatic treatment orientation dominates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
