ABSTRACT
Research on the development and activities of professional groups has become increasingly popular. Studies in the past, [for example, those by Carr-Saunders and Wilson (1933), Parsons (1949), Merton (1957), and Goode (1957)] have, however, tended to relegate the role of the patient or client to a position of minor importance. It is perhaps since the period of the mid-1960s that a wave of consumerism is found in almost every sphere of life.
