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This report to Congress contains the Commission's findings and recommendations for improved research, training and treatment in the field of mental health. It summarizes and discusses the ten monographs, of which Americans View Their Mental Health is one; four are still in
preparation. The two questions the report attempts to answer on the basis of the five-year-research of the Commission are: “Why has care of the mentally ill lagged?” and “How can we catch up?”
In looking for answers to these questions the report becomes quite repetitious. It goes over the history of the mental health movement in both Europe and America and then concentrates to a large extent on the plight of the hospitalized psychotic patient, who until recently and even today in most institutions receives no actual treatment but often vegetates under rather inhumane conditions. Much emphasis is placed on the recognition that the mentally ill do not generally receive sympathy as sick people from their families or even from physicians but are rather rejected by everyone. This fact is explored in order to find its causes. One of its consequences is the difficulty of raising funds in the mental health field as compared to polio, TB, cancer, heart diseases, etc. The picture presented in this report about the funds and manpower available to help the increasing number of the mentally ill and about the improvements made in recent years in treatment and research, as compared to what is needed in these areas, is a very gloomy one.
Two themes permeate the report: 1) that much more money, time and effort should be spent on a great variety of research projects including long-range studies (which incidentally give the researchers financial security for the future) and 2) that some personalities can,