[Realistic and unrealistic goals in psychiatry]

It would be unrealistic to try to turn psychiatry in all its aspects into an exact science. It is realistic to accept that it also deals with non-measurable phenomena; this we should always remember, so as to remain doctors and to preserve what is personal, warm and humane in our work. It is unrealistic to believe that the neurosciences are beginning today to explain all levels of psychic life. While fully recognizing the magnificent achievements of the neurosciences in explaining some basic elements of psychic life, we should keep ourselves aware that the psychic spheres of man remain inaccessible to the purely somatic explanations and are outside their influence. It is unrealistic to claim that our best and most effective treatment of schizophrenic psychoses is 'merely' symptomatic. It is realistic to accept the probability that it is appropriate to the nature of many schizophrenias and that it is radical. It is unrealistic to believe that our only task is to cure illnesses. Often it falls to us simply and in all modesty to accompany patients through their lives along a path chosen entirely by themselves and to be allowed now and then to give a little help to them. It is unrealistic to believe that psychiatry provides a key to improve the world. It is realistic if we concern ourselves in the main with helping the sick, if we critically reflect on the effect our work may have beyond our patient, on society, and if we keep pointing out again and again the good which is in every human being and that we may sometimes bring out this goodness in him.