This volume is a carefully edited record of a work conference which took place in 1954 with the support

of the National Institute of National Health financed by the American Government. The participants, some of whom came from this country, discussed all aspects of life in the mental hospital. The Chestnut Lodge studies by Stanton and Schwartz have by some psychiatrists been regarded as of limited application only, in view of the unusual character of their case material and of the hospital in which it was studied. No such qualifications apply to this book, which deserves to be read carefully by doctors, social workers, and senior nurses working in mental hospitals. It is certain to give them a fuller understanding of their work and to make them better at it.