This year's Reith lecturer is Dr George Carstairs, the Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Medical Research Council's unit for psychiatric illness. He is the author of a study of a Hindu community entitled, 'The Twice Born' and in his Reith series 'This Island Now', he contemplates social anthropology patterns.

In his first Reith lecture entitled 'Stability and Change in Social Environments', Dr Carstairs explores how the interaction of tradition, environment, kinship and personality all play a role in social development. He examines where things have gone wrong and how that contributes to a malaise in the community. He considers the theories of anthropologists and psychologists to understand personality development in order to lay down a framework for exploring why there are these ills within society. Show less