ABSTRACT
Men and women, from cradle to grave, belong to a great variety of different groups in connection with different functions. The study of these Life Groups, what Anthropologists call Field Work, is the ideal medium of observation. Another quite different example of such Field Work—this time not amongst primitives, but in a modern community—and also of bearing upon our subject, is provided in Henrik F. Infield's " Co-operative Living in Palestine." The consistent application of experiences such as these to psychiatric practice anywhere would be to study and treat the individual within his natural group, in particular the family. But the Psychiatrist under our social conditions cannot lead the life of the anthropological field-worker. Perhaps this is as far as one's bold imagination should go, under the check of reality; that the future might provide the G.P. with sufficient psychiatric and sociatric knowledge and skill to fulfil this prophylactic, psychotherapeutic function and give him the time to carry it out.
