The practice of psychiatry around the world.

Abstract

FROM a study of the psychiatric facilities around the world during the past 31 years and a four months' visit to many of these facilities during this past winter, it is evident that the world has slowly come to accept psychiatry as an essential branch of medicine. In numerous countries the medical profession and the public in general are beginning to give up the hopeless and disparaging attitude which in the past was associated with neuropsychiatric conditions. In some places psychiatric patients are still considered in terms of incarceration or custodial care, and the terms lunatic, insanity, and asylum continue to be used; unfortunately, such is the case even in some localities in the United States. But in general the situation has improved, and most practitioners in this field have kept up with the times. In most countries it is not the practitioners who need enlightenment, but the public authorities