The changes in values and beliefs through the first 50 years of the department of Psychiatry at the University of Montreal

This essay attempts to describe and discuss the major changes in values and fundamental beliefs related to clinical practice within the Département de psychiatrie de l'Université de Montréal since its creation fifty years ago.Being an essay, the methods include shared recollections, discussions with colleagues, especially between the co-authors, and the study of some documents related to the practice of psychiatry 40 to 50 years ago.Five major axes of change are proposed: 1- From psychoanalysis to brain diseases, 2- From "Can a non-physician practice psychoanalysis?" to "Can a psychiatrist still perform psychotherapy?" 3- From continuity of care to episodes of treatment, 4- From treatment first to repeated assessments of patients, 5- From love that can heal and repair to a taboo of love.Finally it is suggested that the increasing emphasis on psychopharmacology and on DSM classifications has contributed to a shift from attempts to understand the intimate nature of symptoms and suffering to a priority given to rather mechanical clinical assessments in search of "objective" criteria.