AN OBSERVATION CONCERNING CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD MENTAL ILLNESS

Judiciary intervention such as the process of commitment is defined in social terms as a mediator facilitating communications between the public and psychiatry. A recent change in a long-standing pattern in which there is a decline in the use of commitment in New York State's two large metropolitan areas is interpreted as providing one sign of a change in public attitudes toward mental illness favorable to a direct contact and interaction between the public and medicine. The theoretical significance of such an interaction is discussed.