OUR bold, new approach to the mentally ill may be no more bold than in the past, nor as new as one might think. The following excerpts, taken from the Annual Reports of Winnebago State Hospital, Wisconsin, covering nearly 100 years, sound distressingly like a 1967 yearbook of psychiatry. While there are some new answers, many of the questions and dilemmas remain the same.
Lack of Facilities
"In view of the large number of persons in the state who are proper subjects for hospital care and treatment, beyond the present hospital accommodations, this is a matter of great importance." (1873)
Need for Research
"This institution will have done a great work, if it shall succeed in sending to their homes, 'clothed and in their right minds,' a liberal portion of those who came to it sick and in trouble, but it will have done a much greater