SYNOPSIS
The relationship between psychiatry and political science, two major areas of human knowledge, is explored. The basic belief is expressed that psychiatry's concern with the individual as part of the social matrix can be extended to society itself. An attempt is made to define and analyse political processes in psychological terms. The potential contribution of psychiatry to politics—preventive, interpretative, and predictive—is discussed. Finally, the incorporation of psychiatric and particularly psychoanalytic concepts into political theory is exemplified by a brief inquiry into the writings of Herbert Marcuse.