care, but many of us continue, by and large, to operate out’ hospitals and clinics according to outworn concepts. We sometimes describe psychiatry as the medical specialty devoted to the care of those whose anxiety has distorted their relationships with society and led to irrational behavior. \\Te ITlUst hOW ask seriously whether irrational behavior is limited to our patients. I believe that, when it comes to some of the ways we organize our care and services, it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Every psychiatric endeavor should be subjected 10 the question, “For whose benefit?” We must answer without hedging, without qualifying. The issue is hot, “What is easier for us?” or even, ‘What is easier for the patients?” We know that being sick is sometimes “easier’ ‘ for them than being well, even though it is at the same time more painful; my contention is that their sickness may, in some ways, be easier for us too. So we return to the basic question “For whose benefit?” When we answer honestly, some of the shortcomings of our ptesent practices become clearer. Too often we expect the patient to arrange the details of his illness to suit the resources and regulations of our hospitals and clinics. He must develop an illness suitable, for instance, for clinic care, and one for which treatment can be postponed until he has served his time on the waiting list. Should he be so unwise or so unfortunate as to have symptoms of greater severity that demand part-time hospital care, there are few facilities in the country that could accommodate him. Everyone involved in hospital or clinic administration must ask whether it is more rational to expect a patient to adapt to the organization’s regulations or whether, instead, the organization should adapt to each patient’s needs as they vary during the course of his illness. Happily, there is an increasing number of facilities that can offer a Patient the amount an(l kind of care he needs when lie needs it. In these places rules have been modified to allow a treatment program tailored to each patient’s individual needs for therapy, milieu manipulation, and hospitalization schedules. Ironically, many of our hosl)itals ai l clinics are overtreating l) ttientsIn(l this at a time when we are complaining about overcrowding and I)ersonnel shortages! The fact is that, for some patients, prolonged or overintensive PsYcI otl er 1PY fosters passivity, dependence, and regression, rather than ego growth and independence. We are beginning to recognize that the countertransference