The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors

The Isis Papers
Unified Field Theory Psychiatry
itself: its lack of conceptual clarity. This theoretical ambiguity is the
core of the conflict that confronts psychiany. As pragmatic eclectics,
uncertain that we have put the pieces of the picture together correctly,
we can never be confident that we can distinguish between the sick
patient and the sick society. Psychiatry's contribution to what it means
to be a person is its most powerful aspect. That contribution cannot
be under psychiany's control in a free society. However, the
profession has a responsibility for the hidden values in its theories and
therapies, which contribute to the shaping of 'contemporary
consciousness.' It is in the issues surrounding the subject of women
that perhaps the most convincing attack on the hidden values in
psychiany has been made.
Dr. Stone continued this discussion, asking if these issues cut deeper
into American psychiatry than racism and homosexuality:
As far as I can see, the case against psychiatry as it regards women is
far more damaging, requires far more than a minor adjustment of our
composite sketch; indeed, it compels each of us to reexamine not only
our theories, but also our lives and relationships. There can be no new
psychology of women that does not require a new psychology of men.
That makes necessary a new conception of all our human values and
all the paradigms of psychiatry. Psychiatry does not stand outside of
history or morality, but how do psychiatrists decide which history and
which morality to accept? The rules about which history and which
morality to accept are not clearly described in the biologic,
psychodynamic, and behavioral paradigms. What is required of us is
moral ambition. Until our composite sketch becomes a true portrait
of humanity, we must live with our uncertainty. We will grope; we
will struggle; and our compassion may be our only guide and comfort.
Originally, my essay began with the statement, "It is clear to many that
grave problems are confronting the field of psychiatry at theoretical and
conceptual levels. This crisis has important implications for treatment as
well as problems encountered in formulating diagnostic categories as
evidenced in the controversies surrounding the task of developing Diag·
nostic and Statistical Manual III." But who better should state the
problems facing psychiatry in America than an outgoing president of the
American Psychiatric Association? Indeed, who would be more readily
believed than he?
While not accepting all that was said by Dr. Stone (most specifically
his view of sexism as a more problematic issue than racism), I do share
his awareness of a floundering chaos in psychiatry's current theoretical
and conceptual state. It was this very awareness that, led me to the
consideration of a unified field theory in psychiatry.
The concept of a unified field theory is derived from the work of the
great physicist Alben Einstein (March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955).
Einstein, a mathematical physicist, the most recognized and highly
renowned scientist in the history of Western civilization, spent the greater
portion of his productive years in search of a unified field theory, a theory
that, in mathematical terms (by a single set of equations), would combine
all of the different manifestations of energy phenomena in the universe.
Einstein studied the force of gravity and produced the General Theory
of Relativity. He studied the forces of electromagnetism and produced
the Special Theory ofRelati vity, which became a more accurate yardstick
for measuring the characteristics of the physical world. Then, Einstein
questioned the possibility of generalizing the mathematical foundations
of the theory to derive not only the properties of the gravitational field,
but also those of the electromagnetic field.
His work is reviewed in Ronald Clarke's 1971 Einstein: The Life and
Times. In Einstein's own words:
For years, it has been my greatest ambition to resolve the duality of
natural laws into unity. This duality lies in the fact that physicists have
hitherto been compelled to postulate two sets of laws- those which
control gravitation and those which control the phenomena of
electricity and magnetism ... Many physicists have suspected that two
sets of laws must be based upon one genenl law. but neither
experiment nor theory has until now, succeeded in formulating this
law .... The relativity theory reduced to one formula all laws which
govern space, time and gravitation, and thus it corresponded to the
demand for simplification of our physical concepts. The purpose of
my work is to further this simplification, and particularly to reduce to
one formula the explanation of the field of grllvity and the field of
electromagnetism. For this reason I call it a contribution to 'a unified
field theory' ... Now, but only now, we know that the force which
moves electrons in their ellipse about the nuclei of atoms is the same
force which moves our earth in its annual course about the sun, and is
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