PSYCHIATRY AND THE SCIENCE OF MAN
FRANCIS J. BRACELAND M. D.
As I close this dissertation, I am aware that I have ranged far afield, with thoughts extending lightly in the clouds; yet all of me is planted solidly with my respected colleagues in the mental hospital, the scene of our labors. Earl Bond spoke feelingly of the necessity of giving the hospital psychiatrist a place in the scheme of things and he asked that all scientific day dreams be checked by the facts which the hospital psychiatrist has in his possession. I feel that my score in that test would not be high and yet it is necessary at times to soar from the hard facts of too many sick people, too little help, too little of everything furnished too late.
I know the futility of asking overworked and fatigued men to look up from their labors in order to see something grand in the overall scheme of things; yet look up we must and, when we do, we can better serve not only the progress of psychiatry, but also the progress of man to a fuller and better life.
If the science of man brings enlightenment to psychiatry, psychiatry can repay this debt amply by keeping in mind the great dignity of man and what human nature really is. The psychiatrist, even more than others, is entitled to make his own the words of the poet, Terence:
