Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

HEALTH CAREThe Fall of an IconPsychoanalysis and Academic PsychiatryJoel ParisOver the last few decades, academic psychiatryhas undergone a revolution. After theSecond World War, most departmentchairs were psychoanalysts whobelonged to separate institutes, notsubject to the checks and balances ofacademia, and who did not subscribeto the tenets of scientific medicine.The revolution against psychoanalyticdominance began when a group ofpsychiatrists developed an evidencebasedmodel that brought psychiatryback into the medical mainstream.In The Fall of an Icon, Joel Paris narrates thehistory of this transition, placing it in the context ofcurrent trends in science and medicine. He illustratesthe story using interviews with prominent academicpsychiatrists in Canada and the United States,and describes his own experiences as a psychiatrist:how he was caught up in the excitement of the psychoanalyticmodel, how he became disillusionedwith it, and how he came to a new and more scientificview of his discipline. This is an essential workfor understanding the recent history of psychiatry.Joel Paris is a professor in the Department ofPsychiatry at McGill University.‘The Fall of an Icon is an important addition to theworld literature on psychiatry and psychoanalysis.Joel Paris’s career has coincided with thedecline of psychoanalysis in academe, andhis heavily autobiographical style, alongwith his candour, self-disclosure, humour,and reflection, make this book very engaging.It is, among other things, a short historyof twentieth-century psychiatry.’Of related interest:David Goldbloom, MD, Departmentof Psychiatry, University of Toronto,and Centre for Addiction and MentalHealthFrom Philosophy to PsychotherapyA Phenomenological Model for Psychology,Psychiatry, and PsychoanalysisEdwin L. Hersch0-8020-8734-5 / £42.00 / $68.00 / 2003Approx. 225 pp / 6 x 9 / March 2005Cloth ISBN 0-8020-3933-2 £32.00 $50.00 EPaper ISBN 0-8020-3772-0 £18.00 $27.95 CIllustration courtesy IIT, Bombay.59