A Reconsideration of Power in Psychiatric Administration
Alan A. Lipton M.D.,M.P.H.1 and
Erica Loutsch M.D.2
1 Clinical Services in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Science of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Room E-565, Medical Science Building, 100 Bergen Street, Newark, New Jersey 07103
2 Cornell University Medical College in New York City
The management literature of the past few decades was imbued with a humanistic, behavioral science orientation in which the formal use of power was down played. But with the changing economic climate has come a reappraisal of concepts of power and leadership, and more than ever the clinician-executive must recognize his responsibility for the constructive use of power. The authors review definitions and classifications of power from the management literature and psychoanalytic theory related to the use of power in groups. They present a model, analagous to the doctor-patient relationship, for the use of power by the clinician executive in both stable and unstable organizations.
