The future of psychiatry: a dozen questions while gazing into the crystal ball

After musing over the possible reasons for our persistent preoccupation with the 'future of psychiatry', I formulate twelve arbitrary questions on this topic, and venture into their possible answers in two ways: first, what I would <i>like to see happening</i> thirty years hence (a playful fantasy); and second, what I <i>think might actually happen</i> thirty years hence (a putative projection). These questions range from: will psychiatry survive, as psychiatry, to: What about Low-and Middle-Income Countries? While gazing into this crystal ball armed with the current state of knowledge, attitude and practices, in the end it becomes clearer to me that, whatever psychiatry will experience over the ensuing decades, it should be imperative to sustain the essential core of psychiatry, both as a science and as an art of therapy: socioecological and political-commercial determinants of mental health along with its burgeoning biological determinants; the need for effective communication and relation at every level; and that precious thing called therapeutic alliance or bonding. The value of these will continue to exist, and perhaps increase, over the years and decades, provided we value these values and nurture these as essential components of psychiatric training.