Introduction and General Principles

Abstract

During recent years, medical advancement within those scientific fields which serve the clinical speciality of psychiatry has occurred with breathtaking rapidity. The speed of this progress demands a continuous reformation of knowledge by which new and revolutionary concepts replace older and traditionally accepted ideas. Such rapid changes, which involve the substitution of controversial data for previously considered fact, frequently induce perplexity and bewilderment in those whose work lies in fields beyond the special limits of psychiatry.