There was a time, not long ago, when the only treatment options considered to be worthwhile for patients requiring psychiatric care were the 50-minute hour on the one hand, or full-time hospitalization on the other. Most of us were convinced in those days that treatment could, and indeed should, take place with a minimum of involvement by the patient's family. Nor did we really consider that the community in which a patient lived was a significant contributor to either his illness or its cure. These naive assumptions were strongly challenged, of course, be ginning with the questions of social...