The scientific place and principles of medical psychology : an introductory address : by T. Laycock.

  • Thomas Laycock
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The scientific place and principles of medical psychology : an introductory address : by T. Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    THE SCIENTIFIC PLACE AND PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. By T. LAYCOCK, M.D., etc., etc., PROFESSOR OF THE PRACTICE OF JIEDICINE AND OF CLINICAL jMEDICINE, AND LECTURER ON MEDICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND MENTAL DISEASES, IN THE UNIA^ERSITY OF EDINBURGH. REPRINTED FROM THE EDINBURGH MEDICAL JOURNAL, JUNE 1861. This is the third summer session in which I have delivered a course of lectures on Medical Psychology, combined with practical instruc- tion at an asvUim in the management of the insane. For the medical student such a course naturally resolves itself into two divi- sions,—namely, the principles of medical psychology, and their prac- tical applications to corporeal and mental diseases. But the principles of the science are capable of a general application to human affairs, and, in particular, to the duties of the clerical, legal, and scholastic professions. In the original plan of the course, I had in view the attendance of members of these professions; for I was not without hope that the more energetic and enterprising of them would discover how much the knowledge it includes would tend to their professional success. In this respect I have been disappointed. I shall, there- fore, make the present course more purely medical, and open a special class for the non-medical students if such come forward in sufficient numbers. It must be considered a remarkable circumstance that so little attention is paid in this country to a department of science so gene- rally available. The education of youth can only be considered complete when it secures the full development of all the faculties of the human being, as well as the communication of knowledge. Yet it is conducted, for the most part, either on empirical principles or under the guidance of superficial and mischievous dogmas. I would not, in even the slightest degree, undervalue the worth and labours of the scholastic profession ; we see on every side what zeal, high