ABSTRACT
The previous chapter distinguished the therapeutic from the research component of the three projects and discussed the character, advantages, disadvantages, and problems of the three case studies viewed first as therapy and then as research. The question inevitably arises in connection with this double-focused approach of the extent to which it is, or can become, an established method of work for some social scientists, that is, a method of which the component principles can be identified, communicated, and transmitted. If those components cannot be identified, then the value of case studies of the type described consists in the benefits accruing to the project groups and in the experience gained by the investigator; their contribution to social science is no more than literary. If the component principles can in fact be identified, communicated, and transmitted, then we have the elements of a profession that can be developed and practised as a form of environmental mental health work, and can possibly make a systematic contribution to knowledge through providing a means of examining organization life.
