Forensic psychiatry in its time and place.

Psychiatry has always both interested and frightened the general public in equal measure. Forensic psychiatry, when it deals with high-profile criminal cases, is even more within the public domain. Hence, public reaction, as expressed through the media and by politicians, can be intense. This dynamic relationship between the profession and the public is accepted and understood in one direction—that is, the response of the public to what the professions say and do. However, this relationship has been considered less often when it operates in the opposite direction. A further question that arises is the extent to which professionals are aware that they may be influenced by public attitudes. Professionals usually like to believe that they are applying their art dispassionately, taking account of evidence and a steadily increasing body of knowledge within the discipline. Surely matters are never quite so clear and simple. This editorial explores the extent to which professional practice may follow public opinion. The events cited herein are from Scotland predominantly, but they are described in the belief that similar examples may be available in other countries and within other jurisdictions. To set the scene, and with a relevance that will become apparent later, I start with a poem by Philip Larkin (1922–1985). He was a poet who is probably better known in Britain than in North America. He remains popular in the United Kingdom and was one of the most influential poets of his generation. He had an ability to link personal events and incidents of everyday life with wider themes that have a much more fundamental significance. His poem Annus Mirabilis was written in 1964 and published in an anthology in 1967. The first verse of his poem is as follows (Ref. 1, p 167):