It is the task of an intensive care unit to eliminate death. The personnel of such a unit forms a "marginal group" at whose expense the members of society wish to spare themselves the confrontation with death, and this wish becomes an excessive demand upon the staff. Schors recounts the boundary rituals which

dominate life in intensive care units as well as the peculiar interactions with patients whose "careers" come to an end when they leave the unit—one way or another. He interprets these rituals and interactions as counterphobic acting out or, in the case of resuscitation, as discharge of aggression, and he recommends the introduction of group supervision.