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Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: while acknowledging the honour in being asked to open this Symposium on ‘Methodology and Research in Psychiatry’ I cannot conceal from myself, and therefore should not conceal from you, a certain feeling of whimsical humour in the situation, for I have never read a book on Methodology, so far as my memory serves me, nor extended by a hair's breadth man's horizon in the field of Psychiatry; the opener should at least have done one or other. But since Royal Commissions accept the testimony of nonexperts in the topic they are considering perhaps the Medical Section may extend an equal clemency. However, if I have myself added nothing to Psychiatry I have been upon occasion a participant observer in the work of some of those who have, and though I do not pretend to express their august opinions I cannot deny my debt.
For convenience this short paper will be broken up into sections which may be given catchwords, viz. (a) Number, (b) Pattern matching, (c)‘No research without therapy, no therapy without research’, (d) Summary.
The whole region of Psychology may be divided into areas of research according to the number of persons concerned. Thus we may speak of One-Body Psychology, Two-Body, Three-Body, Four-Body and Multi-Body Psychology.2