Organic Approaches to Schizophrenia

Great strides have been made in many areas of science in recent decades but progress in the behavioral sciences has been slow by comparison. The mechanisms involved in the normal operations of the brain are not yet understood and, as a consequence, few facts to explain the function of the abnormal mind have been established. The relative neglect of research in neuropsychiatry cannot be due to the unimportance of the problem because the problem is very great. Perhaps the apparent disinclination to investigate mental disease is related to the special problems inherent in psychiatric research. Advances in medical research have generally resulted from experimentation on animals. While animal studies have shed valuable light on some behavioral problems, this approach has limited applications to man because humans possess the ability to develop unique problems within the systems governing behavior, e.g. neuroses and psychoses. Aberrations in behavior can be induced experimentally but it is highly questionable if they correspond to the states seen in the mentally ill.