pantyfanatic,

Granted that the state of the mental health practitioner's art lags behind that of, say, that of the dentist's; it seems that the degree of separation is rather smaller than implied by the astrologer to astronomer comparison.

I’m sure that we all are aware of the impact of the lithium-based medications on the treatment of depression. These were, if memory serves me right, introduced in the late 50,s or early 60’s, and had an immediate beneficial impact on sufferers of clinical depression. Grumbleguts’ experiences indicate a continuing development of the pharmacology available to treat these medical conditions.

Sigmund Freud’s theories of he unconscious mind did not rely upon the principle of repeatable test results, and so lack this component of being scientific. I am under the impression that these theories do not serve as the basis of contemporary clinical treatment of mental illness.

Richard Feynman was a professor of physics, and had a profound impact upon the development of the Standard Model of Quantum Mechanics. While I am sure that "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" will be entertaining reading, I was unaware that he was a contributor to this domain of scientific understanding.

In re genetic research, there are a number of psychological conditions that are strongly correlated with an individual’s genes; one of the earlier ones was the discovery/identification of a "manic" gene among the Amish. With the exploration of the Human Genome Project proceeding apace, I’m under the impression that research is already proceeding in the direction you’d like.

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Eudaimonia