Dr. R. B. Robertson: New Director of the Hospital for Mental Diseases in Lebanon

Dr. Robert B. Robertson is now plunging into a new battle — after the battles in which his courage shone during the war in the Middle East and in Italy — to combat mental diseases in Lebanon and the Middle East.

Dr. Robertson is determined to introduce modern improvements into the Asfuriyeh hospital and to enable the poor and the rich alike to benefit from the latest attainments of modern medicine. Two nurses specially trained for mental diseases have lately arrived from England to reinforce the team of specialists who are now working with Dr. Robertson.

Dr. Robertson is doing his utmost to establish contact with official personalities and bodies, and to bring responsible citizens to visit the hospital for themselves. Two hundred and fifty members of the Cultural Congress paid a visit to the hospital and greatly admired the work it is doing.

The opening of the psychiatric clinic on Phoenicia Street, in the Sami Saab agency building, to the west of the Daouk station, during the present month of October, will be a new event in mental medicine in Beirut. Specialists associated with the hospital will give private consultations, by prior appointment.

Alongside all this, Dr. Robertson is watching over the rise of a society of psychologists and physicians of the mind in the Middle East, whose aim is research into mental diseases. There is no doubt that the need for such a body is great; those wishing to cooperate in this field may apply to Dr. Robertson's deputy, Dr. A. S. Manoukian.