The term “psychiatry” like “psychology” derive from the greek word “psych” meaning “soul”! For ages, before the inception of “psychiatry” and even to this date, the field has been conceived as a specialty to treat the “soul” first by priests, then witches, philosophers, psychics, rituals, incarcerations, burnings, etc.  That has been so much that patients even with common illnesses such as depression were thrown into “asylums” instead of hospitals and chained instead of treatment with medicines.  The patients were labeled “mentals”, “psychos”, “cuckoos”, and the psychiatrists as “shrinks”!    

This is while psychiatry is perhaps the medical speciality mostly contributing to the neuroscience and the scientific studies of our brain. In fact the “psych” is the function of the brain in different domains, e.g. behavioural, emotional, cognitive and so on.  But now it is the time that the field “psychiatry” that does not deal with “psych” any longer, changes its title to “Neuroscience” or else to fit the current position of the speciality.  This is perhaps the only way of salvation of this important field of medicine to get its true identity among the other medical specialties and get rid of an ancient aged stigma for itself and its patients!

Dr.Mostafa Showraki, MD, FRCPC                                                               Lecturer, University of Toronto,Head, Community Psychiatrists Association of Toronto (CPAT),Author: “ADHD:Revisited” Book “adhdrevisited.com”/”medicinerevisited.com”