| Psychiatry concerns itself with the human spirit. It views human beings as a complex composed of mind and body, and its basic objective is to treat people in their totality. Today, with the rapid advance of molecular biology and neurology, which tend toward reductionism, the approach of psychiatric treatment that focuses on the individual is apt to be neglected in favor of a tendency to emphasize uniform treatment with pharmaceuticals. An overemphasis on the search for primary factors in the genes and the brain has pushed to the background an overall viewpoint comprised of the body, including the cerebral nerves, and character, through a relationship with other factors in the environment. We look forward to a rebirth of a scientific philosophy that takes into account modern biological and neuroscientific researches, based on framing the issue as a focus on the entire person and individuality. |
Biohistory Jyournal, Winter, 2002
