Unfortunately there are serious defects in many of the works upon general psychology which render them almost useless to the student of psychological medicine. This may explain, if it does not excuse, the quaint selection of subjects, often wholly irrelevant or inappropriate, which form the contents of the psychological section of many English books on mental disorders. But this deficiency is not a sufficient excuse for the neglect of the kind of instruction that is of vital importance for the proper understanding of such disorders. When books such as those written by McDougall, Stout, Hart, Shand, and Déjerine and Gauckler, are available, it is possible to use the facts of normal psychology as the natural, rational and necessary means of explaining and interpreting departures from the normal state. We may summarise here some of the chief defects of our national system of treating mental disorder. First and foremost is the serious waste of time which almost invariably occurs before the mental sufferer comes under medical care. This is due to a variety of causes—all of them preventable. The chief is that, lying in the path of patients who would _voluntarily_ seek help, there is the insurmountable obstacle of the asylum system and its restrictions. The men in the asylum service, who have the opportunity of acquiring an intimate knowledge of mental diseases, are _forbidden_ to carry that knowledge into the outside world for the benefit of the mental sufferer. If a patient, suffering from a mental disorder in its earliest and easily curable stage, should voluntarily go to an asylum and ask for advice, all that can be done for him is to suggest that he should consult a medical man outside, or to recommend him to call and see the relieving officer. Now, unless the patient has considerable means, it is practically certain that he will be able to consult no medical man who is conversant with—much less expert in—the treatment of early mental disorder. And, though the relieving officer’s intentions may be of the best, it is just his ‘help’ and all that it means, that the unfortunate is so desperately striving to avoid. In short, all that the officials under our present system can say to such a man is, “Go away and get very much worse, and then we shall be allowed to look after you!” Can stupidity go farther than this? Even, however, if the doctor were allowed to help such a person in the asylum, this would be far from an ideal solution of the difficulty. Entry into such an institution, even if voluntary, would entail the serious social stigma which has been so often mentioned. Furthermore, the asylum, with its associations and implications, particularly the assumption of the irresponsibility of the patients interned in it, would destroy one of the chief therapeutic agents in the treatment of such cases. We mean the conviction of the patient that he is still responsible for his actions, and that he is still able, under direction, to cure himself.