THE TRIAL Friday, 4 March, 1955 BASIL FREDERICK ROBERTS STAFFORD, sworn and examined: BY MR HART: Your name is Basil Frederick Roberts Stafford? A: Yes Q: You reside at Arran Avenue Hamilton Brisbane? A: Yes Q: You are a duly registered medical practitioner? A: Yes Q: You have already made two affidavits in this matter already? A: Yes CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR WANSTALL Q: You are a specialist in psychiatry? A: Yes Q: How do you define the science of psychiatry? A: The application of psychology by a medical practitioner. Q: In what field? A: Any field relating to human beings. Q: How do you apply psychology to human beings? A: Psychology could be defined, I think, as the science dealing with the mind. The functions of the mind are modified by many factors, such as environment, emotion, natural talent and so forth. Q: How do you recognise and register functions of the mind? THE CHIEF JUSTICE: What do you mean by that? BY MR WANSTALL: How do you recognise and classify the functions of the mind? A: I suppose I just answer you in words again by exhibitions of behaviour that would be commonly recognised as intelligent or lacking in intelligence. Q: Does that mean by the way in which the function is translated into some visible external result? A: Substantially, yes. Q: So you draw a conclusion from an observed practical result that the mind has moved in a certain way? 32
The 1955 Romance Comics Trial
