ABSTRACT
All patients in the community-oriented ward had originally resided for long periods in custodial settings. But once they were selected for the community-oriented ward, they were exposed to programs grossly different from those that they had previously known. There is a much greater spread in the room preferences of the experimental patients, and 10% of their "favorite room" choices involved interface rooms. Despite similarities in physical layout, the control and experimental groups experience their milieu quite differently. Looked at from the perspective of ego psychology, these intergroup differences in the perception and experience of the ward ecology point to differences in ego functioning between the experimental and control cohorts. Highly staffed intensive programs for the mentally ill, even the aged, chronic mentally ill, which push for limited and specific gains, may incidentally energize, or re-energize a more total process of ego maturation in the direction of adequate functioning.
