I take it as axiomatic that we want more and better research in psychiatry and in the cognate disciplines, but I have the strong impression that in Great Britain, and especially among younger colleagues, the desire and the ability to contribute to the realization of this aim are tenuous. Why so? Is it the people; the training they have received; the value-systems and ideologies they take on board; the milieu in which they work, or the intrinsic nature of psychiatry which militate against fruitful developments?