General Systems in Psychiatric Disorder

Abstract

During the third decade of this century, the Shroedinger equation of quantum mechanics was developed and its theoretical and practical application elaborated (Semat, 1944). Modern physics was already well developed. Moreover, the higher mathematics that were later to become the bases of more recent advances were already published and understood by workers in appropriate fields (Greene, 1986). Biological sciences and medicine, despite major advances in infectious diseases and tissue pathology at the end of the nineteenth century, still had not advanced so far in terms of theory and application. The possible role of insulin in diabetes mellitus was the most notable advance in biological science in 1922 (Banting & Best, 1922). Major health advances at the time often resulted from public health measures such as insuring sanitation, a clean water supply, and adequate housing, all still luxuries in the Third World today (The Economist, 1986). Sulfa drugs were not to be available for another decade, and penicillin was not yet even a laboratory scientist’s dream.