PSYCHOLOGY AND NEUROLOGY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 8

PSYCHOLOGY AND NEUROLOGY

MODERN TREATMENT OF THE " ' "INSANE. -> Press Association. AUCKLAND, February 10. In the psychological, medicine and neurology-section at.the Medical Congress the presidential address of Dr Chisholm Ross was read by Dr Godfrey, of the Hospital for Insane (Mel. hour no).- Tho address reviewed the progress- made, in., tho treatment of mental disorders during tbo last thirty years. Dr Ross contrasted the conditions when ho started asylum work, in 1884, with tho methods and appliances of tho present day, illustrating tho immense strides made m tho matter of administration and treatment within that period. He laid especial emphasis on tho value' of efficient staffing, and pointed out tho igronit improvement that had taken place in our. mental hospitals in this respect. In tho old days a homo for .tihp retention of the insane was an asylum in the simplest acceptation of tie,-term, whereas mental hospitals were now subdivided into numerous departments.' A particularly important feature of these institutions was tho establishment of receiving .houses for tho observation of borderline, cases. The president, in summing up the situation, compared tho work and study on mental disorder in Australasia with tho methods in other countries, and contended that the mental hospitals of Australia compared very favourably ,to-day with those of England and the Continent of Europe. A psychological paper of deep interest to the profession Wris’oue read by Dr Andrew Davidson on “the nnivorsal recognition by medical schools of neurology and mental disorders as a compulsory subject.” The theme was dealt ! with along necessarily technical lines, but claims wide interest as illustrating the increasing bold which the psychological aspect is obtaining among men of medicine in their combat with mental- and nervous disorders.