Kaohsiung (Taiwan)

Abstract

In his memorial speech given on the 30th anniversary of the Chinese Society of Psychiatry in Taiwan, the founder of the Society, Professor T. Lin, spoke on the evolution of psychiatry in Taiwan. He stressed that the “building up of psychiatry from almost nothing against all odds” just after World War II in an area where “the general attitude of the medical profession as well as the lay public to psychiatry was characterised by indifference and contempt arising from their ignorance and also prejudice against mental illness” (Lin, 1961) is like Robinson Crusoe surviving on his desert island. Today, the Society with its 518 members has had considerable success in the development of psychiatry in Taiwan.