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Pivnicki cautions us about the vagueness and confusions as well as the dangers in the concepts of 'milieu therapy'. The so-called 'new psychiatry' invites interventional therapy with the least expertise. In contrast to the value placed upon knowledge of the patient through the 'uncovering technique' of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, emphasis is placed upon radically directive techniques to alter both the individual and the community in which he lives. The author feels that many of the new psychiatrists display an amateurish naïveté and are seduced by their political beliefs and biases. While many studies suggest that the environment has a restrictive power on individual development, there has been little evidence that altering the environment or community has been therapeutic. The study of environment must start with descriptions of environmental changes that do have definite positive effects on the individual. Moreover, there is a large body of literature encompassing the impact of environmental changes upon the individual that should be pursued before developing new theories and therapies outside the realm of psychiatry.