Abstract
This paper poses a number of questions regarding the recent history of psychiatric organization in Canada. Using public documents regarding organizational structure, it was suggested that during the decade 1956–1966, there was considerable evidence of a national shaping of policy regarding psychiatric services by a small but influential group of reformers. For other questions such as the organization and dispensing of research funds, access to more privileged sources would be required. In its organization, Canadian psychiatry is of no greater interest than many other professional organizations. However, because of its critical role at a time when health services generally were in transition, the psychiatric elite played an extremely important part in influencing the restructuring of psychiatric services around private practice, around general hospital and medical integration and the ideology that mental illness is identical with physical illness. The blurring of differences between psychiatry and mental health were discussed briefly and the apparent lack of conflict between bureaucratic and professional roles.