Gloom and Doom

Abstract Managed care has had a large impact on the socioeco-nomic status of modern-day psychologists, leading to a negative mood and outlook for the future of the profession. However, managed care is but one of many challenges to the lives and careers of professional psychologists over the past fifty years. This essay is both a personal and historical look at the problems and obstacles professional psychologists have had to face in the past five decades. With strong leadership, new ideas, and the support of all professional psychologists, this period of pessimism for the field will pass, and the profession will prosper, just like it has over all the other hurdles it has faced thus far.