Past Issues

Background: I studied psychiatry in France from 1971 to 1974 as a French government-scholarship student. I became familiar with a history of French psychiatry, the development of chlorpromazine, new movement of community psychiatry away from hospital-centered psychiatry. What I learned in France became the background for my clinical psychiatric practice after returning to Japan. My experience in France was also useful when I later worked at the World Health Organization (WHO), where I remained involved in shaping national policies concerning mental health in Asian countries. The lessons I have learned in France are innumerable. French psychiatry has made a monumental contributions to the world psychiatry. But these facts are not well-known to Asian countries. Methods: Based on my experiences, I would like to introduce several achievements made by French psychiatry. Results: During my studying psychiatry in France, 1971-1974, I learned France being one of birthplaces of psychiatry, witnessed the birth of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), heard of discoveries of psychotropic drugs, experienced the academic activities at l’Hôpital Sainte Anne, as well as exposed myself to a community mental health center and deinstitutionalization to learn a different way in taking care chronic patients with schizophrenia. Conclusion: My valuable studying experiences in France have had huge influences in my later psychiatric career, such as helping the development of mental health policy in countries of the Western Pacific Region of WHO, doing the research on the use of psychotropic drugs in Asia (REAP), involving in the WPA, and founding the Asian Federation of Psychiatric Associations.