Abstract

[NovemberOF PSYCHI-Sm : In the July issue of this Journal, Dr. in his comment on Prof. Kinberg’s paper, referred to Swedish psychiatry as “barren and lacking in international contact” and stressed that its level was “not acceptable by modern standards.” I haveLofgren, the privilege psychiatry, of some and had a number in Sweden. knowledge of Swedish the opportunity lastto visitother I feelpsychiatric it thereforeclinics and institutionsto be my duty, to make someas an independant comments on theobserver, paper byI strongly Prof. Sj#{246}a great true how-much below that in continental Europe. In the administrative, therapeutic, teaching, and research fields, psychiatry has attained in Sweden a very high level. The hospitals are generally extremely well planned and equipped, the State is presently providing large sums for their extension and modernization. There is a great concern about the social aspects of mental disease. The teaching at the graduate level is probably more extensive than in most European countries, and, in addition, series of lectures on medical psychology are given in the first years. Psychiatry is now considered in the medical schools as one of the mainclinical subjects for the examinations, a situation probably unique in Europe. The level of research, as