DURING the past few years numerous investigators have studied the effects of the ataraxic drugs on psychiatric patients. The undoubtedly valuable contribution of these drugs to psychiatric treatment has proved a sharp stimulus to this type of research. However, in the past few years, newer modalities of therapy have been applied to psychiatric patients, in part because the drugs make patients more amenable to treatment and in part as a result of a better awareness of some of the problems of mental patients. This new era of psychiatric treatment has changed the nature of the psychiatric-hospital environment and has increased . . .