Most clinicians and researchers are concerned with recent advances in psychiatry. This involves the danger whether something time-tested may get sidelined for extra-scientific reasons. That the pharmaceutical industry and super specialist researcher may keep churning out new findings to impress audiences is only a partial truth. Research progresses by refutation and self-correction. Acceptance in science is always provisional; changing paradigms, frameworks of enquiry and raising new questions is integral to breakthrough in scientific knowledge. Hence, there is in science a constant concern with the new. Moreover, the number of treatment non- responders to the time-tested swells with time, and researchers feel challenged to find ways and means of resolving their difficulties. Newer challenges need newer strategies. Obsession with the most recent can lead us astray, but a healthy evidence-based acceptance of the new is essential for advancement in psychiatric research. As indeed of research in all fields of medicine. And of science in general. The role of lithium and newer mood stabilizers in bipolar disorders are taken as examples to highlight this point.

Key Terms:

Psychiatric research, Refutation, Paradigm shift, Bipolar Disorders, Lithium, Mood-stabilizers, Treatment   non-responders, Pharmaceutical Industry.

A lot of Indian research is replicative in nature. This is because originality is at a premium here and mediocrity is in great demand. But replication has its merit as well because it helps in corroboration. And that is the bedrock on which many a fancied scientific hypothesis or theory stands, or falls. However, to go from replicative to original research will involve a massive effort to restructure the Indian psyche and an all round effort from numerous quarters.

The second part of this paper deals with the essence of scientific temper, which need not have any basic friendship, or animosity, with religion, faith, superstition and other such entities. A true scientist follows two cardinal rules. He is never unwilling to accept the worth of evidence, howsoever damning to the most favourite of his theories. Second, and perhaps more important, for want of evidence, he withholds comment. He says neither yes nor no.

 Where will Science ultimately lead Man is the third part of this essay. One argument is that the conflict between Man and Science will continue till either of them is exhausted or wiped out. The other believes that it is Science, which has to be harnessed for Man and not Man used for Science. And with the numerous checks and balances in place, Science will remain an effective tool for man’s progress. The essential value-neutrality of Science will have to be supplemented by the values that man has upheld for centuries as fundamental, and which religious thought and moral philosophy have continuously professed.

Key terms:

Replication, Refutation, Mediocrity, Scientific Temper, Religion, Value-neutrality, Ethics in Science.

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Gandhi believed in judging people of other faiths from their stand point rather than his own. He welcomed contact of Hinduism with other religions, especially the Christian doctrines, for he did not want to be debarred from assimilating good anywhere else. He believed a respectful study of other’s religion was a sacred duty and it did not reduce reverence for one’s own. He was looking out for those universal principles, which transcended religion as a dogma. He expected religion to take account of practical life, he wanted it to appeal to reason and not be in conflict with morality. He believed it was his right and duty to point out the defects of his own religion, but to desist from doing so with other’s faith. He refused to abuse a man for his fanatical deeds for he tried to see them from the other person’s point of view. He believed Jesus expressed the will and spirit of God but could not accept Jesus as the only incarnate son of God. If Jesus was like God or God himself, then all men were like God or God Himself. But neither could he accept the Vedas as the inspired word of God, for if they were inspired why not also the Bible and the Koran? He believed all great religions were fundamentally equal and that there should be innate respect for them, not just mutual tolerance. He felt a person wanting to convert should try to be a good follower of his own faith rather than seek goodness in change of faith. His early impressions of Christianity were unfortunate which underwent a change when he discovered the New Testament and the Sermon on the Mount, whose ideal of renunciation appealed to him greatly. He thought Parliament of Religions or International Fellowship of Religions could be based only on equality of status, a common platform. An attitude of patronising tolerance was false to the spirit of international fellowship. He believed that all religions were more or less true, but had errors because they came to us though imperfect human instrumentality. Religious symbols could not be made into a fetish to prove the superiority of one religion over another.

 In a multi-religious secular polity like that of India, Gandhi’s ideas on religion and attitude toward other religions could serve as a secular blueprint to ponder over and implement.

Key words: Religion, Reason, Proselytization, Hinduism, Christianity, Conversion, Secularism

Primary Health Care was the means by which Health for All by the Year 2000 AD was to be achieved. And Health for All was possible only if All were mobilised for Health. This meant not just governments and medical establishments, but people themselves. Primary health care is essentially health care made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community by means acceptable to them, through their full participation and at a cost the community and country can afford. And in working for such positive health, the role of health experts or doctors is the same as that of a gardener faced with insects, moulds and weeds. Their work is never done. Primary health care is a health conscious people’s movement. Its implementation depends on knowledge of proper disposal of services and a persistent demand from an active and quality conscious consumer-the public. Strong political will, community participation and intersectoral coordination are its basic principles. However, the National Health Policy of India, 1983, was hardly debated in both houses when tabled. Both NHP 1983 and 2002 failed to confer the status of a Right to health, while most other nations are planning newer strategies to put Right to Health and Medical Services into practical use. Community participation in health is an aphorism that awaits genuine realisation in many countries of the world, notably of the third world. India, unfortunately, is no exception. Progressive Five Year Plans in India have reduced percentage spending over health as a part of GDP, which is an alarming state of affairs. Public awareness and activism alone can remedy this alarming condition. The people should not forget that health is not only a commodity that a benevolent government/ institution/ individual bestows on them. It has to be earned and maintained by the individual himself. Health problems cannot be solved in isolation. They will ultimately be part of our struggle for an egalitarian society, because better health care is a sign of a more evolved one.

Key terms: Primary Health care, National Health Policy, Health, Right to Health, Health for All by 2000 AD, Alma Ata Conference

Singh A.R., Singh S.A. (2004-2005), Resolution of the Polarisation of Ideologies and Approaches in Psychiatry, Mens Sana Monographs, Vol II: 4-5, Nov 2004-Feb 2005, p1-32.