This book is the first volume of what the editors hope will be a series published every other year or so, dedicated to the broad scope of community mental health. It is an updating and elaboration of the basic Handbook of Community Psychiatry and Community Mental Health1 edited by Bellak in 1964 in which he refers to community psychiatry as the third psychiatric revolution, following the second phase initiated as the result of the development of psychoanalysis by Freud.

Since the implementation of the Community Mental Health Centers Act in 1963, community mental health has been a burgeoning field that has led to broader concepts of medicine and to innovations in the theory and practice of psychiatry. The literature and variety of experiences in this area have expanded so rapidly that a multi-authored survey, with chapters of varying styles, interest, and competence, is deemed a necessity despite its inherent drawbacks.