Originally published in 1985, at a time when the previous 2 decades had witnessed dramatic changes in the US mental health system. These included the decline of the state mental hospital, the birth of the community mental health center and the expansion of psychiatric services in general hospitals.

Part 1: Historical and Conceptual Concerns 1. Madness and Segregative Control: The Rise of the Insane Asylum 2. The Enduring Asylum David Rothman 3. Cycles of Institutional Reform Part 2: The Changing Mental Health System 4. The De Facto US Mental Health Services System: A Public Health Perspective 5. Deinstitutionalization and Mental Health Services 6. General Hospital Psychiatry: Overview From a Sociological Perspective 7. Community Control or Control of the Community? The Case of the Community Mental Health Center 8. The Mental Patients’ Rights Movement, and Mental Health Institutional Change Part 3: Providers and Treatments 9. Professional Training and the Future of Psychiatry 10. Prediction in Psychiatry: An Example of Misplaced Confidence in Experts 11. Medical Dominance: Psychoactive Drugs and Mental Health Policy Thomas J. Scheff 12. Clinical Psychopharmacology in its Twentieth Year George E. Crane Part 4: Alternatives to Traditional Mental Health Services 13. Mental Hospitals and Alternative Care: Non-institutionalization as Potential Public Policy 14. Self-Help and Mental Health 15. Inside the Mental Patients’ Association16. Psychology of Women: Feminist Therapy 17. From Confinement to Community: The Radical Transformation of an Italian Mental Hospital 18. The Collective Approach to Psychiatric Practice in the People’s Republic of China.

‘One of the strengths of the anthology is Brown’s own introduction. He provides a clear if abbreviated summary of key changes in the structure and delivery of US mental health since the 1950s.’ Valerie Gerrand, International Social Work, Vol 29, Issue 4.