Redefining Russian Clinical Psychology

Abstract

The whirlwind of changes set in motion by perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet system has freed clinical psychologists in Russia to expand the boundaries of the discipline and simultaneously thrown up obstacles to its development. The resulting tumult may be seen as either a healthy ferment of ideas or chaos. To borrow an idea from Altman (1978), an examination of both centrifugal and centripetal forces at work clarifies the situation.