THE PSYCHIATRIC APPROACH IN PROBLEMS OF COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT : THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Some general aspects of the management of human society are discussed and it is pointed out that basic knowledge concerning human behavior must be incorporated in public administration as well as matters of supplies, wages and man-hours of labor. It is stressed that planning is too often based on an idealized concept of an economic and logical man, rather than based on a realistic appraisal of how man actually behaves and what common forces motivate him.

Among other social sciences, psychiatry has a philosophy and an approach to problems of human behavior which can be applied to some of the difficult questions of human management by administrators, in a manner very similar to their use in the clinic. The question, How can I get people to carry out this program? and the question, How can I bring this patient to a more adjusted way of living? have much in common. In both it is desirable to define sentiment patterns and gain insight into the multiple motive forces that lie within them.

To illustrate these points, a description of a particular administrative problem in a Japanese relocation center is given and it is analyzed in terms of a psychiatric approach. Although the problem was not solved purely by the analysis, insight into the nature of what was happening was attained and the desirable course of future administrative action was made clear.