True and False Experts: A Second Look

In 1878 Dr. Eugene Grissom examined a number of forensic and reform issues concerning psychiatry and attacked a colleague who had been critical of the profession. The ensuing confrontation between the two seems particularly significant today. Both from within and without, psychiatry is being criticized for its exclusiveness, élitism, and traditionalism. As was the case almost 100 years ago, the issue often seems to be less a matter of the substantive nature of the criticism and rebuttals than one of hostility toward psychiatry itself.