Public mental health care and its problems: Two important new books—What they include and what they omit

These two very different books carefully document and severely criticiU! the sorry state of public mental health care in America today. Written by non-paychiatrista and focusing particularly on New York City and State, both deserve scrutiny by all psychia· trists, especially those in the public sedor. But neither mentions the specilic administrative changes since 1974, which, in this reviewer's opinion, have harmed care in New York so greatly. Aller describing how public care for mental iIIne8B began, they examine "de-institutionalization" and bureauCTatization, the most signilicant influences on it today. They also scrutinize changes in