'Law' and 'Order' in California.

Psychoanalytic theory been both a stimulus and an impediment to the development of the social work profession. Recognition of its ineffectiveness during the Great Depression and in the current War on Poverty has forced social workers to review their infatuation with this theory. As a theory, psychoanalysis is incompatible with certain basic tenets of the American creed--puritanism, scientism and optimism. It is pessimistic and highly libidinal. The theory had difficulty gaining acceptance by the medical profession because of its metascientific, psychological, rather than empirically scientific physiological, explanations of mental disease. This study explores the historical and political exigencies of the 1920s that influenced the American public's acceptance of psychoanalytic theory. This study explores the historical and political exigencies of the 1920s that influenced the American public's acceptance of psychoanalytic theory. Furthermore, it demostrates how the political climate of that decade influenced responsible experts, including social workers, to consider psychoanalysis as being scientifically correct.