ABSTRACT
The mental-health first revolution goes back to the birth of institutional psychiatry in the nineteenth century. It was a progressive movement then, under medical auspices. What it offered to insane people was asylum—-a humane alternative to almshouses and jails. The forefront of innovation was the consulting room of the private practitioner; the method, treatment by talk. American society is now well launched into a third mental-health revolution that promises to end the isolation of the mentally disturbed and bring them back into the community as fully accredited human beings. The greatest danger perhaps is that the third mental-health revolution will be "resisted by incorporation"—that is, confined to existing models while lip-service is given to "new" ideas. Effective "community mental-health" cannot be fitted inside existing professional biases, habits, and territorial rights. We must have explicit and built-in evaluations of new programs, with continuous feedback of adequate information about results.
