In the past five years increasing concern has been expressed within the medical profession at the wastage of medical manpower arising from the failure fully to utilize the skills of women doctors who are only able, because of domestic commitments, to work part-time.

This conference, under the title ‘Psychological and Psychiatric Perspectives in Mental Health’, was held at the University of Durham on 28 September 1977. I suppose that among the regular attenders of clinical symposia there can be few who, with the passing years, do not have cause to adjust their levels of expectation. Our earlier attendances at meetings may have carried hopes for blinding revelations of new educational horizons, but as time goes by one is more than grateful if the slightest snippet of a new idea escapes from the formal proceedings, and one looks most eagerly towards the byways of ‘between session’ encounters for the greatest personal, professional—and vocational—revivals. This is a premise which some may regard as cynical but I believe is simply realistic.