It has been repeatedly stated that research in clinical psychiatry has almost reached a dead end. It has been the practice for some time now to separate one disease from another with respect to causes, clinical findings, course, outcome and pathological findings.1 1 This practice has now outgrown its use. We must explore new avenues. We cannot, however, deny a certain justification for such practices. In the past, when tissue was first examined microscopically, new discoveries were made daily. Today we can only make significant progress by using very refined methods. In the case of some diseases many questions have already been answered. It is difficult to broaden our knowledge in such instances. The more we scratch below the surface, the more obvious the problems become and the more refined our tools need to be. In spite of all this our successes are becoming more modest. We shall have to resign ourselves to this state of affairs, which after all corresponds to that found in other branches of scientific enquiry.It is appropriate under these circumstances to ask whether new aims and methods will open up more promising vistas in the field of clinical research. We naturally will then turn our attention from merely classifying and categorizing diseases to a more exalted and satisfying exerciseunderstanding disease processes and how they inter-relate. We want to be able to bring order to the many confusing types of mental illness. We also aspire to an understanding of * All footnotes are by the translator.
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