ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

Family care is defined as "the practice of placing mental patients in foster homes, either as an alternative to or as a transition from continued hospitalization." After tracing the development of family care, the authors suggest that patients are faced with the dilemma of returning to their families where they are caught up in a pathological role or remaining in the artificial environment of a hospital with pressures toward regression. A third alternative is family care. Group therapy with after-care patients and similar techniques are said to be appropriate for family care patients with the new environment providing a testing ground for patterns in living and an emotional climate for growth.