ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the moral aspects of career— that is, the regular sequence of changes that career entails in the person's self and in his framework of imagery for judging himself and others. It is also concerned with the protection required by the person for the version of himself which he presents to others, and the way in which the withdrawal of this protection can form a systematic, if unintended, aspect of the working of an establishment. The career of the mental patient falls popularly and naturalistically into three main phases: the period prior to entering the hospital, the prepatient phase; the period in the hospital, the inpatient phase; the period after discharge from the hospital, the ex-patient phase. A relatively small group of prepatients come into the mental hospital willingly, because of their own idea of what will be good for them, or because of wholehearted agreement with the relevant members of their family.
