ABSTRACT
Clinical psychology is the subspecialty that offers assistance to people with psychological problems. It is clearly an applied discipline. But it has had the unhappy task of being called to fulfill its mission before an adequate set of therapeutic methods has been fully developed. It had its start as a recognized subdiscipline during World War II (circa 1940). Psychologists were used by the military for the purpose of testing people, as well as for counseling. Initially there was little in the way of theory or technique that these early clinical psychologists could call upon, other than the various psychoanalytic approaches. They were in a position similar to that of physicians in the early years of medicine: It was possible that they were in danger of hurting their patients as well as helping them, because they had no independent assessments of the efficacy of the techniques they used.
