| Abstract: | Comments on Deutsch's article "After Legislation: What Price Psychology?" (see record 1960-00289-001). The current authors suggest that Deutsch places disproportionate emphasis on legislation as a mechanism for enhancing the position of the psychological profession. While coincidental benefits like these are not to be slighted, the primary purpose of such legislation is necessarily the promotion of the public good. Therefore, Deutsch's criticism that certification laws do not really improve the lot of clinical psychologists vis-a-vis the medical profession is, in addition to being debatable, quite beside the major point. Deutsch properly states that it is necessary to balance the debits against the credits in evaluating legislation. The current authors believe that, as far as can now be ascertained, the credits heavily outweigh the debits--provided that the scale employed is one calibrated in terms of the common weal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
