posted on 2024-11-18, 14:46authored byInaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of Psychology, Rand Afrikaans University, 26 July 1979@@During the past two decades Clinical Psychology has undergone some radical changes. The greater need for psychological services in a variety of settings such as the general hospital, community health services, industry and in private practice,
forces him to expand and transcend traditional boundaries which limit his field to that of serious psychopathology.
There is a growing need for more in depth knowledge of healthy personality growth and functioning. Contact with other fields of study such as literature, art and philosophy will enhance the psychologist's sensitivity and insight with regard to his psychodiagnostic and psychotherapeutic functions. The central task of the clinical psychologist is psychotherapy. This implies both the healing of symptoms, better general adjustment and the facilitation of the personality growth of the basically normal person. The development of one's full potential as a human being is seldom made possible by conditions in modern society. The clinical psychologist has the knowledge to guide people to a higher level of functioning where they can deal more creatively with their environment. Changes on an individual level can effect changes within the family and the broader society in which this individual finds himself. If any significant change is to be brought about in modern day society, it can only be achieved through the inner, psychological change of responsible individuals and not through changing the external structures.