ABSTRACT
The federal hospital where the present study was conducted includes two divisions of about one thousand beds each, assembled under a single administrative unit. A recently built hospital division dealt mainly with admission and short-term treatment of mental patients. It also included a large general medical and surgical service. The older division, commonly referred to as the “continued treatment service,” housed a population of mental patients almost entirely chronic, as that term was defined in earlier work (Maynard, 1964)—that is, hospitalized for two years or more. The experimental ward which served as the “feeder” to the experimental community lodge was located in the older division.
