The Development of Psychiatric Research in Canada up to 1964

Abstract

Systematic developments in psychiatry came later than in modern medicine, in Canada as elsewhere. Empirical discoveries of significance for the latter occurred in the 18th century, those for psychiatry only in the 20th, depending on much more sophisticated technology. The emergence of an appreciation of emotion as a central factor in mental illness was spurred initially by Freud and then emphasized by the social disasters of two world wars. Physical methods of therapeutic value were followed by the application of chemical agents having phrenotropic effects. From such developments and the devising of chemical methods for the deeper understanding of body chemistry have emerged a psychiatry closer to the medical model. Simultaneously more sophisticated attitudes and criteria have risen. All these changes have depended in large measure on the application of research methods. The early employment of research in the Canadian scene are examined up to 1964 for those centers which have led the way.