Time orientation and psychotherapy in the ghetto.

The ghetto resident's concern with immediate real and psychological survival leads to what Kluckhohn called a present-time cultural value orientation, in contrast to the middle-class time orientation, which values preparation for the future. The authors view several aspects of the psychotherapy of ghetto patients in the light of this difference: evaluating patients for long-term psychotherapy, understanding precipitating factors, and understanding the nature and urgency of patients' communications. The authors have observed behaviors as expressions of impulse rather than of culturally determined expectations that are projected onto the therapist.

The creative arts therapies as "real therapies".

Elements of a standard definition of psychotherapy are used to support the argument that the creative arts therapies should not be characterized as adjunctive therapies, or discredited as not being "real therapies." Two concepts widely acknowledged as important in the application of the creative arts therapies are discussed: first, that the nonverbal media employed by creative arts therapists tap emotional rather than cognitive processes and evoke responses more directly and immediately than traditional verbal therapies, and, second, that creative arts therapies are reality-based and provide a more immediate and real link to a patient's experience than something he can portray only verbally.

"No-commitment week": a feasibility study.

To determine the extent to which involuntary hospitalization is overused, a "No-Commitment Week" was set aside, during which emergency room psychiatrists committed only patients in absolute need of hospitalization. Compared with the week before and the week after, there was no significant difference in the number of patients committed during No-Commitment Week. The authors propose replication of the study on a larger scale but suggest that decisions about involuntary hospitalization in public mental hospitals are the result of societal attitudes, which will be subject to change as long as society itself continues to change.

The impact of the community mental health movement on psychiatric practice and training.

The three basic concepts of community mental health will have profound impact on many aspects of traditional psychiatric theory and practice, the author believes, and must be taken into account in psychiatric residency programs. The catchment-area concept means that psychiatrists are obligated to provide help for far larger numbers of people, including those who have problems and attitudes psychiatrists are not accustomed to dealing with. Psychiatrists must also work in partnership with communities that demand a voice in defining and labeling problems and specifying treatment modalities.