ividual and race with the Ruler or
rules of the Universe. Whatever form it may take expresses his capacity
to feel himself in humility and faith, and yet with determination, a
more or less responsible part of the greatest unit he can grasp. The
form this takes is bound to vary individually. As physicians we learn to
respect the religious views of our fellow beings, whatever they may be;
because we are sure that we have the essentials in common; and with this
emphasis on what we have in common, we can help in attaining the
individually highest attainable truth without having to be destructive.
We all recognize relations that go beyond individual existence, lasting
and "more than biological" relations, and it is the realization of these
conceptions intellectually and emotionally true to our individual and
group nature that constitutes our various religions and faiths.
Emphasizing what we have in common, we become tolerant of the idea that
probably the points on which we differ are, after all, another's best
way of expressing truths which our own nature may picture differently
but would not want to miss in, or deny to, the other. One of the
evidences of the great progress of psychiatry is that we have learned to
be more eager to see what is sane and strong and constructively valuable
even in the strange notions of our patients, and less eager to call them
queer and foolish. A delusion may contain another person's attempt at
stating truth. The goal of psychiatry and of sound common sense is truth
free of distortion. Many a strange religious custom and fancy has been
brought nearer our understanding and appreciation since we have learned
to respect the essential truth and individual and group value of fancy
and feeling even in the myths and in the religious conceptions of all
races.

Among the most interesting formulations and potential contributions of
psychiatry are those reaching out toward jurisprudence. Psychiatry deals
pre-eminently with the variety and differences of human personalities.
To correct or supplement a human system apparently enslaved by concern
about precedent and baffling rules of evidence inherited from the days
of cruel and arbitrary kings, the demand for justice has called for
certain remedies. Psychiatry still plays a disgraceful role in the
so-called expert testimony, largely a prostitution of medical authority
in the service of legal methods. Yet, out of it all there has arisen the
great usefulness