ALTERNATIVES IN COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH

by Gordon & Walter Abrams Holleb ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1975

Holleb and Abrams, Wesleyan '69, might have been post-grad hippies or left-wing activists; instead they founded Pequod, an ""alternative"" social service specializing in hotlines, drop-in counseling, drug addiction and obesity, runaways, legal and sexual problems -- a general crash pad for counter-cultural flower children and a haven of another sort for the idealistic and alienated counselors themselves. But now that the pendulum has swung back the full 180 degrees and ""the counterculture has crashed against the all-too-solid shore of history and social reality"" the young men of that very volatile moment have their story to tell -- about the evolution of ""consensual anarchy"" (part utopian community, part college fraternity, part mental health clinic) into ""the New Establishment."" They hope to provide guidelines for similar anti-hospitalization Szasz-Laing-Goffman crisis-oriented facilities; but the metamorphosis of Pequod from an altruistic tight family to a well-endowed semiprofessional bureaucracy that's ""the first rung on the career ladder"" is a unique instance of co-op and cop-out not likely to be repeated once the radical chic of the '60's has succumbed to those more ""deeply ingrained culturally scripted ambitions."" More interesting as testament than source-book.

Pub Date: April 30, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Beacon

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1975

Categories: NONFICTION