SIR,—In as much as 'psyche' is derived from the Greek,
meaning spirit or mind, much of the confusion to which Dr. William Sargant referred could be avoided if the word psychiatry were used to describe only the treatment (i.e., analysis) of the mind. The treatment of the brain by electrical shock and anti- depressant drugs could more accurately be described as brain therapy.
No one would wish to decry advances made in the treatment of the mentally and neurotically ill. But what Dr. Sargant in fact goes on to say is that, whether as an environmental factor in the up- bringing of children or as therapy in analysis, under- standing and insight could be better substituted by physical methods of treatment which 'cut the cackle.' This is a loveless doctrine, and it is misleading the general public, or at least that section of it which reads the Spectator, when the use of the word psy- chiatry to encompass such wholly differing treat- ments results in such specious argument.
A. G. BAKER
567a Warwick Road, Solihull, Warwickshire
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