Science and the future of psychiatry

If humanity is lucky, the evolution of our knowledge of the living world wi ll result in the elaboration of more perfect scientific eyes to probe the n ature of the human brain and to understand the complexities of the human mi nd. This seems to be the best path to truly helping individuals who are bat tling psychiatric illnesses and to actually preventing many brain-related d isorders. For such accomplishments to take place, the trajectory of our sci ence has to change, to move from its unrelenting reductionism to a serious attempt at integrating knowledge that spans from the structure of the gene to the expression of complex cognition. The tension between the biomedical and the psychotherapeutic approaches in psychiatry needs to be eliminated a nd transformed into a fully integrated approach that is mindful of the biol ogical, emotional, cognitive, and social complexity of each individual.