The clergy and the mental health professions: the first Samuel H. Prince memorial lecture.

In this lecture, as a tribute to the late Samuel Prince, founder of the mental hygiene movement in the Maritime Provinces, the rapprochement between the clergy and mental health profession is discussed. A brief survey of the historical background of the churches' approaches to mental disorder leads to consideration of subjects of present mutual concern. Spiritual and emotional development, responsibility and guilt, law and freedom, psychic structure and sanctity, sexuality, and symbolic representation are among the areas which demand intellectual exploration in depth, jointly, by theologians and social scientists. The need is outlined for training parish clergy to carry out their role in ameliorating emotionally damaging social conditions and of educating and counselling parishioners.