On looking inward and being scientific. A tribute to Arthur H. Schmale, MD

Paradoxically, Schmale's greatest contribution remains hardly known even to his admirers. That has been his challenge to the tradition disallowing introspection and dialogue as scientific instrumentalities. There can be no more appropriate tribute to Schmale at 65 than to call attention to how he has gone about refining everyday observation, introspection, and dialogue for scientific use. In so doing he reestablishes the ancient triad introspection-observation-dialogue as the basic scientific method of clinical study.