An examination of the rise and development of therapeutic care for mental illness, studying the activities involved in providing ward care to hospitalized mental health patients. This book came about as a result of a nationwide survey of patient care as provided in representative state and psychiatric hospitals, as well as an experimental project with the Boston Psychopathic Hospital to establish cooperative relations with a state and a neuropsychiatric Veterans Administration hospital in the vicinity, in order to test the applicability of principles and practices such as those used by it. In collaboration with Robert W. Hyde.

This volume contains fifteen papers that were delivered at a two-day conference under the auspices of Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller University. The first volume was published in 1967 and dealt with the topic of neurophysiology and emotion. The second volume contained the proceedings of the conference on genetics and behavior and was published in 1968. The aim of the series was to strengthen the dialogue between the biological and social sciences.

Contributors:  Joaquín Cravioto, Richard H. Barnes, Edward A. Suchman, William A. Mason, Leon J. Yarrow, Peter Marler, Andrew Gordon, I. Arthur Mirsky, René Dubos, Richard H. Walters, D.E. Berlyne, William Kessen, P. Herbert Leiderman, Jerome Kagan, Urie Bronfenbrenner, and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr.

Published in 1962, Cottage Six documents the implementation of more effective use of the social sciences in the therapeutic program of an institution for children, particularly its Cottage 6, inhabited by adolescent boys. It analyzes the problems that confront any institution that wishes to develop an integrated clinical and therapeutic community program.

Howard W. Polsky was professor at the New York School of Social Work, Columbia University.

From the preface: “The present work and a simultaneously published companion volume, Theory and Practice of Social Planning, share an overall goal. They would conceptualize and illustrate both specialized planning for social programs or fields and the social aspects of more general planning endeavors. Of particular concern here is the demonstration through use of a number of critical planning concepts often discussed only in the abstract. Author and reader, of course, are concerned with specific policies and with programs in specific fields. The studies presented – they are short monographs rather than true chapters – introduce issues and problems in a variety of high-priority areas. The specific rationale for selection and the manner in which each study is employed are discussed in the first chapter.” Topics include: the anti-poverty war, child delinquency, income security, city renewal, community psychiatry, and the delivery of social services at the local level.

ALFRED J. KAHN was professor of Social Policy and Planning at the Columbia University School of Social Work.

Perceptions of Illness and Medical Practice points to behavioral science knowledge that can be used by physicians, public health specialists, nurses, medical social workers, and others who are directly or indirectly concerned with health problems. Examples are given of the use of this scientific knowledge in the actual care of the patient.

            The first part of the book outlines the major concepts from psychology, sociology, and anthropology that are pertinent for the health professions. The emphasis is on the manner in which people perceive situations and the effect of physiologic, psychologic, and sociocultural factors in determining variations in perceptions. The second part deals with the subject of disease and its interpretation, especially in connection with beliefs and attitudes toward disease. The main feature of the third part is an analysis of the rights and duties, the demands and role expectations of the physician, the nurse, and the medical social worker. The final section describes the social structure, subculture and value system of the hospital, with special attention given to the general hospital. It deals with the hospital patient, his expectations and perceptions, his ways of behaving in illness, his values, the staff’s perception of him and his behavior, and the effect of these perceptions on his care.

Stanley H. King was associate director of research at the University Health Services and lecturer on clinical psychology in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University.

Written as a guide to nurses who work with mental health patients in the development of skills to meet everyday problems and to improve their understanding of the emotional as well as the physical needs of the persons under their care, this 1956 book addresses problems such as: nurse and patient fears; patient aggressiveness; the demanding, withdrawn, or delusional patient; patients with suicidal tendencies; and those who have eating difficulties. Case material and actual conference recordings are used to illustrate the subject matter under discussion, drawn from a research project of one author and from the extensive practical experience in psychiatric nursing of the other author. The book develops an approach to understanding these problem situations and methods of resolving them for the patient’s benefit and improvement.

Morris S. Schwartz and Emmy Lanning Shockley, with the assistance of Charlotte Green Schwartz

A report on conditions and care of mental health patients in the United States, with details on attempts to alleviate the dilemmas faced by large public mental hospitals in different parts of the country.

Otto von Mering, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Stanley H. King, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh

Winner of the 2019 Outstanding Book Award from the Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association

2018 Choice Outstanding Academic Title 

“Bruce Western, our foremost authority on mass incarceration, has filled in a yawning gap in the research on one of the great banes of our era. Homeward is a thorough and deeply illuminating study on the end-point of mass incarceration—the effort to reintegrate ex-offenders into our society. The challenges outlined in the book should not simply inform our reentry efforts, but should also make us question the American policy of handing down sentences, which, in some profound way, never really end.”

—Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Correspondent, The Atlantic

“In Homeward, Bruce Western probes in rich detail the lives of ex-prisoners in their first year of life back on the streets of Boston. He looks unflinchingly at the correlated web of adversities that men and women face in the transition out of prison, especially how violence, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, and family chaos exacerbate the stigma of a prison record in the reentry to society.  Beautifully written and deeply researched, this book provides an important framework on social and criminal justice.  The implications for policy are profound.”

—Robert J.  Sampson, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University

In the era of mass incarceration, over 600,000 people are released from federal or state prison each year, with many returning to chaotic living environments rife with violence. In these circumstances, how do former prisoners navigate reentering society? In Homeward, sociologist Bruce Western examines the tumultuous first year after release from prison. Drawing from in-depth interviews with over one hundred individuals, he describes the lives of the formerly incarcerated and demonstrates how poverty, racial inequality, and failures of social support trap many in a cycle of vulnerability despite their efforts to rejoin society.

Western and his research team conducted comprehensive interviews with men and women released from the Massachusetts state prison system who returned to neighborhoods around Boston. Western finds that for most, leaving prison is associated with acute material hardship. In the first year after prison, most respondents could not afford their own housing and relied on family support and government programs, with half living in deep poverty. Many struggled with chronic pain, mental illnesses, or addiction—the most important predictor of recidivism. Most respondents were also unemployed. Some older white men found union jobs in the construction industry through their social networks, but many others, particularly those who were black or Latino, were unable to obtain full-time work due to few social connections to good jobs, discrimination, and lack of credentials. Violence was common in their lives, and often preceded their incarceration. In contrast to the stereotype of tough criminals preying upon helpless citizens, Western shows that many former prisoners were themselves subject to lifetimes of violence and abuse and encountered more violence after leaving prison, blurring the line between victims and perpetrators.

Western concludes that boosting the social integration of former prisoners is key to both ameliorating deep disadvantage and strengthening public safety. He advocates policies that increase assistance to those in their first year after prison, including guaranteed housing and health care, drug treatment, and transitional employment. By foregrounding the stories of people struggling against the odds to exit the criminal justice system, Homeward shows how overhauling the process of prisoner reentry and rethinking the foundations of justice policy could address the harms of mass incarceration.

BRUCE WESTERN is the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, and Co-Director of the Justice Lab at Columbia University.

Prepared under the Playground Extension Committee of the Russell Sage Foundation, this address to the second annual Playground Congress of New York City in 1908 examines the changing role of the significance of childhood as well as sympathy for the suffering and distress of others, in particular children within the public school system.

LUTHER H. GULICK was director of the Department of Child Hygiene at the Russell Sage Foundation.

In Drugs and Society, Bernard Barber organizes and criticizes what has been learned about drug behavior by biologists, medical researchers, pharmacologists, sociologists, practicing physicians, economists, and government officials, The author brings out the implications of what is now known, the perils of continued ignorance in many areas, and the need for a great deal of specific new research.

Barber examines the ethical considerations relating to experimentation with drugs on human subjects. He indicates that our social policy for the treatment of drug addicts is based on prejudice and ignorance and that it probably aggravates the troubles it seeks to eliminate.

BERNARD BARBER was professor of sociology at Barnard College, Columbia University