Abstract

The theory and practice of psychiatry remains fragmented despite many attempts to induce consistency into the subject. The main reasons for this lack of consistency are to be found in the different schools of psychiatry, predominently the organic (sometimes described as medical), psychodynamic (psychoanalytical), behavioural and social psychiatric schools. Each looks at psychiatry from a different standpoint and hence introduces a bias into assessment and management that conflicts with the other schools. Each of these schools is founded on a model that is sound in some parts of the subject and quite unsatisfactory in others.