SIR,—' A Psychiatrist's Choice' is interesting, pungent and much of
it to the point, but I am disturbed at the implications. If research and practice are to concentrate on physical treatment without regard to theories and explanations,' the great danger is of unbridled experimentation (with human beings) and eventual abuse of the special knowledge of psychiatrists. This is not peculiar to psychiatry but applies to all branches of science, of which the question of nuclear energy and the atom bomb is an outstanding example. It is therefore not surprising that ' Psychiatrist ' looks up to Russia as leading in the field and would have us follow suit in order to preserve western civilisation, but which in effect, would turn it into a new totalitarianism.
Incidentally, when he mentions Jesuit's bark and lemons being effectively used against malaria and scurvy hundreds of years before an explanation for it was found, why does he not list also the quack remedies used in many more cases at that time against these diseases which probably did much more harm than good ?
Altogether, rather a dangerous man in any resurgence of totalitarian ideas.—Yours faith- fully,
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