Clinical Psychology Adversely Criticized

From visits to a number of clinics and other places where mental retardation or deficiency is receiving attention, from interviews with physicians and psychologists who are not working in the field, and from current journals and newspapers, criticisms have been gathered of clinical psychology in its present status. The adverse criticisms may be reduced to the following:?(1) Mental tests are being overemphasized. (2) Clinical psychology is too much limited to diagnosis. (3) The work is not of much practical value, for little can be done to improve the mentality of the retarded and the defective. (4) Clinical psychology is usually based on the wrong kind of psychology. (5) The field should be cared for by the medical profession. With very few exceptions, clinical psychologists must plead guilty to the charge of over-emphasizing mental tests. Much effort is being directed toward devising, refining, and standardizing testing devices with the apparent purpose of making them automatically