Those who provide resources for research in that field haven't found the question to be worth their money/approval/etc. If you find independent funding from an iconoclast, and have the chutzpah to break from the primary research institutions, you have a unique opportunity.

This is the one that has most stymied my creativity. Interesting research will often require resources, i.e. political backing. A researcher with powerful friends has far larger probability of success than the proverbial lone tortured genius.

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, which rotated into the city I was living in. It was all about drugs. If you have new techniques for treating mental illness which do not involve the pharmaceutical corporations, it looks to me like you are on your own.

In my own field if I want to pursue stuff that bosses and administrators are interested in, I have a large playing field. My own ideas? Nobody is even interested in listening to them, let alone permitting me work time, computer time, &c. And if I pursue them on my own I can get the "not team player" or "hobbyist" labels of career doom.