Introductory Lecture to a Course on Psychiatry, Delivered at the Imperial Joseph Academy in Vienna, November, 1866

Abstract

Upon the noble ship of medicine, which sails proudly on the ocean of knowledge, decked out with gay and varied flags, there floats, my honoured friends and colleagues, one banner inscribed with the word “Psychiatry.” It is, I might almost say, the last one added and the lowest in position. For although in the future we may hope that it will be uplifted higher, and acquire more and more prestige, so as probably at length to range itself on a level with its auxiliary sciences, with pathological anatomy, physiology, and practical medicine, and with other specialities of this last, as a worthy equal with them, yet, alas! this happy event is not yet realised! Still, my friends, we must feel impelled to advance further and fur ther along the new road that we have entered upon-that practical and positive path whereby alone we can attain to that goal at which we aim, the goal of truth and perfection. And, in fact, my friends, if I to-day, in this introductory discourse, do not unveil before you the dreary picture of the past in respect to this science of psychiatry–if I withdraw from memory all those dark deeds and barbarities that prevailed of old, and gladly let oblivion cover them, it is with the view that I may do homage to progress, and thereby place myself in harmony with you; for the purport of our inquiry into this science of psychiatry is, to find not what was, but what is, and still more what shall be, and what shall be for the better, and at the same time to investigate and advance it. In considering to-day the principles (stand-point) of this science, I shall therefore, first of all, take up that division which is known as clinical psychiatry.