Some Relationships Between the Psychiatry of Children and of Adults

Abstract

For the Chairman's Address to the Child Psychiatry Section in 1955, Cameron (5) decided to survey the scene of Child Psychiatry. His survey was historical and he described the various influences that have in turn borne on and helped to shape the practice of Child Psychiatry as it is today. Kanner (9), in the Maudsley Lecture of 1958, took the same theme and elaborated on it further. It is significant that they both felt that the time had come to do this for a young speciality and, indeed, their lectures were of considerable interest and use to those of us who have not lived through—in Child Psychiatry—the times described. However, Child Psychiatry has not become static; the scene will continue to change and to enlarge as more new influences come to bear. It seems that we who are engaged in its active practice now, and in the future, have need to watch where we are going; especially, as comparative success has brought some rewards and we foresee the likelihood of further rapid expansion in the speciality, with the need, to recruit more child psychiatrists. Again, the joint or liaison committees that have sprung up with other medical professional bodies are in a sense a recognition of our significance; they are also a responsi bility and may be a test of our loyalty to psychiatry as a whole.