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This book reports the results of a six months’ intensive program of mental health education in a small community, which was preceded and followed by studies of the attitudes of members of the community toward mental illness. As a control, similar studies were made in a similar community in which no comparable educational program was carried out.

The investigators found that the program had little effect upon the communities’ attitudes toward mental illness, but that it did arouse a surprising degree of anxiety. The authors, a sociologist and a psychiatrist, explore this phenomenon, its significance, and its important implications for mental health promotion and for psychiatry.