An attempt is made here to present a few concepts of Indian literature, to outline their application in treatment, and to give an impression of the range of conditions in which they may be helpful. These concepts have been prevalent in India for many centuries, and interest in them on the part of doctors has recently revived.

Concern is now general (College of General Practitioners, 1958; Hill, 1960; School of Medicine and Human Biology, 1963) that doctors are inadequately trained for a number of the demands made on them in practice. Many doctors are not equipped to treat emotional disorders and to collaborate with psychiatrists in the treatment of psychologically ill patients. Under present conditions many young doctors graduate with a distinct antipathy to the social and emotional aspects of illness (Walton et al., 1963; Walton et al., 1964). Experienced general practitioners sometimes express strong dislike for the psychological component of their practice and disinclination to get any further training in psychological medicine (Rawnsley and Loudon, 1962). Even those doctors who do seek instruction in psychiatry differ widely in the type of teaching they want and in their attitudes to patients (Walton, 1965). Many of those selecting themselves for training are unsuitable (Balint et al., 1966).

The adult adjustment of children who were partially reared in foundling homes or other child care institutions is largely unknown. There is ample proof that major personality and character disturbances attributed to lack of maternal or emotional nurture appear in many children during or soon after periods of institutional care. Several authoritative reviews of the subject have appeared (Bowlby, 1952; Yarrow, 1961; Ainsworth et al., 1962). The later history of such children is much less clear. Retrospective studies of persons located through psychiatric clinics or delinquent groups suggest that considerable psycho-social disability persists well into adolescence. In particular, shallow feelings and loyalties, inability to form or tolerate emotional relationships, and asocial behaviour are frequently described (Bowlby, 1946; Goldfarb, 1947). However, other evidence supports at least partial spontaneous recovery (Beres and Obers, 1950; Clarke and Clarke, 1959; Stott, 1956). The adult fate of children who receive institutional care, though of compelling theoretical and practical interest, remains speculative.

A boy prostitute is defined here as one under 16 years old who repeatedly performs sexual acts with other males for reward, and is known for this service by his community. This article is concerned with the antecedents, acts, treatment and follow-up of 33 such boys.

This paper describes some of the characteristics of children included in the National Survey of Health and Development who have been cautioned by the police or come before the Courts before their seventeenth birthdays.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the routine admission of children below school age with their mothers, it being postulated that this would be to the benefit of both and that the emotional needs of the children would continue to be met during the mothers' treatment. Modern paediatric practice emphasizes the maintenance of the close emotional bond between mother and child, and it was felt that if a mother is mentally ill, the resulting psychological trauma to her child should not be made worse by separating them.

Characteristics which are wholly genetically determined are distributed at random among all the members of a sibship. Dependence of the distribution on birth rank (i.e. maternal parity at the birth of the subjects) or on position within the sibship provides presumptive evidence of non-genetic causes and may give some indication of their nature (McKeown and Record, 1956). Investigations on the birth order of schizophrenics (Tables VI and VII) have to date given no clear and consistent results, and further study appears to be indicated.

In a previous survey of hospital in-patients it was observed that among schizophrenics the earlier born were affected to a greater extent (Rao and Sundararaj, 1964). Following a suggestion by Slater (personal communication) the work was extended and further data collected on a larger number of patients to determine the role of birth order in schizophrenics. The present communication reports the findings.

Light may be thrown on the aetiology of human abnormalities by studying the position in birth order occupied by affected individuals and the age of the mother at the time of their birth. There should be no shift from average population values in either of these respects in the case of conditions directly and solely due to an abnormal gene, though there may be such a shift in conditions due to chromosomal abnormalities, such as mongolism (Down's syndrome). If, however, the question of a chromosomal anomaly does not arise, then departure from normality in birth order and maternal age suggest that environmental factors are involved in the causation of the condition.

The aim of this study is to describe by means of certain psychological tests various personality characteristics of those who have made suicidal attempts and to see how they differ from other psychiatric patients and from normals who have not made such attempts at suicide.

During the course of a recent analysis of one year's male admissions to Rampton Hospital, and of male referrals to the psychology department, attempts were made to distinguish various offence patterns by means of psychological laboratory techniques. The results were largely disappointing, owing mainly to the great amount of overlap in the numerous crimes committed by the same patients. However, using a galvanic skin response (G.S.R.) conditioning procedure similar to that described by Tong (1958), it was noted that those patients who had committed arson revealed a normal distribution of conditioned responses (see Table I), whereas every other offence pattern was positively skewed towards the low condition-ability end of the dimension (Esher, Orme, McKerracher, 1965). This suggested that further differentiation might be possible, and a full analysis was made of a number of case history factors in those patients who had, amongst other crimes, been charged with and found guilty of, committing arson. Comparison was made with the remaining patients, guilty of other crimes but not of arson.

The reviewer here outlines the theory behind Patrick Slater's technique for the analysis of Repertory Grids. He then presents an analysis of a very simple Grid. The clinical possibilities of the method are assessed, and it is put into its context as a research design by a comparison with other multivariate methods.

Recently several papers have appeared which apply the techniques of multivariate analysis in attempts to show that patients suffering from depression can be divided into two groups, often called “endogenous” and “neurotic”, which tend to have different groups of symptoms and different outcomes with E.C.T. or other treatment. The purpose of the present paper is to look at this problem from the point of view of a statistician in an attempt to clarify the logic involved in the various procedures.

Electroplexy is widely practised and recognized as a valuable form of treatment in psychiatry. The techniques used have been studied and described, and the complications listed in detail.

Oxypertine (also known as Win. 18,501–2) is a member of a series of alkyl indolyl-4-phenyl piperazines (Archer et al., 1962), and is 1-[2-(5,6 -Dimethoxy-2-methyl-3-indolyl) ethyl]-4-phenylpiperazine.