Need for Growth of Forensic Psychiatry

Knowledge about mental illness has been existing in India since the time of initial civilization. In the era of Indus valley civilization these illnesses were thought to be the result of supernatural influences. Around 3000 B. C. when Ayurveda developed elaborate description and classification and treatment of these conditions, the trends generated a humanistic point of view about such conditions. In the 13th century A. D. Unani system of medicine was introduced in India coinciding with invasion of the country by the moslems. It also had a humanistic approach, propounding kindness for persons afflicted with such illnesses and also prescribed various medicines. Due to illiteracy and inadequate means of communication such knowledge remained limited to certain individuals only. Repeated onslaughts by the invaders resulted in people looking for safety rather than devoting attention towards health aid knowledge. Then followed the British era which provided only a few mental asylums, mostly with an aim of removing the poor mentally ill patients from 'human visibility'. The British also brought about written laws and the Indian Lunacy Act promulgated in 1912 is still in force in the country. They also brought the so-called modern system of medicine in the country and with it came modern trends of psychiatry. The first outpatients department of psychiatry was established at R. G. Kar Medical College, Cal-cutta in 1933, and the first course in postgraduate education in Psychiatry was started in 1944 by the Bombay University. Since then psychiatric medicine has been making vigorous strides, particularly after 1947 when India gained independence. Welcome result has been an increasing awareness regarding mental health in our population. An unavoidable byproduct of this phenomenon of increasing awareness has been increasing involvement of psychiatry with the law, which forces us to focus our attention on the relationship between psychiatry and the law. In the present age of increase in crime many a times a criminal pleads 'not guilty'by virtue of being insane and the psychiatrist has to appear in the court and testify as to the soundness of mind and to advise about the criminal responsibility of the defendent. Though most publicised, this is not the only circusmtance when a psychiatrist comes into contact with law. Majority of patients who require the expertise of a psychiatrist are those who may harm themselves or the society, are not able to look after the welfare of their family or property, and may turn …