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The Psychiatrist in Search of a Science

I: Early Thinkers at the Maudsley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Eliot Slater*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, S.E.5

Extract

Until quite recently the prestige of Science was enormous, and in its glow basked innumerable earnest workers who firmly believed that their meticulous ant-like activities were advancing the health, wealth, welfare and spiritual ascent of man. In the last few years that prestige has quite suddenly collapsed. We do not deny the loftiness of aim which inspired our forerunners, but we have begun to realize that the secondary consequences of the most nobly motivated activities may lead to disaster. The main consequence of the advance of scientific knowledge has been the proliferation of technologies which have armed and powered a materialistic culture in the exploitation and progressive erosion of a fragile living environment. The scientist of an earlier generation had some notion of seeking after an aspect of the truth, and relied in the main on his own insights and ingenuity. Today, all too often, he knows himself for an expendable member of a professional team, depending on the routine deployment of technical resources for the manipulation of an established paradigm.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1972 

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