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ROBERT N. BUTLER, M.D.

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1963;8(2):139-141.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.^*

Our studies were of older people selected with the criteria of medical health, community residence, and the absence of severe psychopathology.¹ We were applying a microscope to an unusually healthy and socially competent group of aged. A major research strategy was to maximize the opportunities of studying the effects of time alone (chronological aging) and to minimize the effects of disease, social adversity, and mental disorder. We also sought to observe for very early suggestive manifestations of the prevalent disorders in the aged, depression and chronic brain syndrome. Since we were engaged in a follow-up study, we could confirm or reject our predictions. We used the term "Senile Quality" to describe the early group of apparent organic changes, and we . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
BETHESDA, MD.

From "An Essay on Man," by Alexander Pope.

Research Psychiatrist, Section on Psychiatry, Laboratory of Clinical Science, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Consultant, Geriatric Program, Chestnut Lodge, Inc., Rockville, Md. Faculty, Washington School of Psychiatry, Washington, D.C.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 17, 1962.

Originally presented at a joint meeting of the Clinical Investigations Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health and the Washington Psychiatric Society, May 26, 1961.

A lawyer telephones me asking for our data concerning the mental condition of an aged volunteer we had studied over four years before. On the basis of information he obtained from the volunteer's physician, the lawyer thinks the old man suffered from senile brain disease and wants our data as evidence respecting testamentary capacity.

A volunteer is defined as one who offers himself for service of his own free will. What is the situation with respect to payment? In what way does a stipend complicate the situation? (Compare therapeutic situation.) Is this a matter of selling personal data? Selling services? There is need to clarify issues of the unpaid volunteer versus the paid volunteer. Speaking broadly, the extent to which we are protected from investigation (to begin with) more or less lies within the concept of "volunteer"; the first step in the research process is the voluntary act of the research subject.

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