My brief is to discuss the present and future relationships between clinical psychologists and psychiatrists. I shall be speaking from the, no doubt restricted, viewpoint of a Consultant in Adult Psychiatry working in a general hospital unit in a Teaching Area. My comments will not, therefore, apply to child psychiatry or mental handicap, and may well be received less than enthusiastically within mental hospitals. The highly efficient organizers of this conference, in their letter of invitation said, ‘We want a sensible, middle of the road view’. Did they realize, I wondered, that the middle of the road can be a rather dangerous position to occupy? I shall try very hard to avoid a head-on collision.