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PROFESSIONAL mental health personnel who are starting to man the plethora of new Community Mental Health Centers do not even have to venture out into the neighborhood to run into a new breed, a new actor on the mental health stage, who goes by the unwieldy title "indigenous nonprofessional." The realization is now spreading that this role itself and the effect of their work on the community have far-reaching mental health implications. This paper will attempt to spell out this role and the conflicts inherent in it, so that the mental health professionals might be able to arrive at a more fruitful collaboration. Nonprofessionals are beginning to be used in various treatment and preventive roles in mental health programs. Although their roles might be different than those of the nonprofessionals described in this paper, many of their conflicts will be the same. The pathological effects of

This paper describes the goals, methods and realities of Kibbutz Collective Education, or group care. This description makes clear that the kibbutz situation provides the child with ample and variegated emotional and social stimulation and close attachment ‐‐ both to the family, to peers and to the wider society. Behavioral observations Illustrate some of the specially relevant aspects of group care, such as the early development of social interaction between peers, the development of social behavior and group identity, and the learning of differentiation, and raise various issues which require further research. A review of the available research on kibbutz children, adolescents and young adults reveals an apparently advantageous effect of kibbutz education upon psychological and social development. ∗ This material is excerpted from a more extensive publication of early child care programs in Israel which is being prepared by the International Study Group on Early Child Care under the auspices of the Carn...

At present, the credibility of survey research findings is largely a function of response rate. Low return rates are presumed to suggest biases in data. This paper demonstrates that when surveys are made of homogeneous populations (persons having some strong group identity) concerning their attitudes, opinions, perspectives, etc., toward issues concerning the group, significant response-rate bias is probably unlikely. This is because on matters related to the group, persons having strong identification with the group tend to respond more as members of the group than as members of some social classification, such as the middle class, those over 50 years of age or members of the Democratic party. Although at first glance these survey conditions may seem rather unique, most surveys in the social sciences are probably precisely of this sort. Most are probably of homogeneous populations on matters obviously concerning them.

■ In the face of a thriving increase in the use of a variety of group approaches in mental health programs, there is an urgent need for conceptual and methodological clarity. This paper outlines a classification system for group treatment modalities that is linked to client needs and allows for interaction patterns on different depth levels. ■ The disquieting symptoms of personal and social pathology characteristic of this "age of alienation" remind us again of the im portance of the small group as a source of sustenance and gratification for the indi vidual. From the standpoint of community mental health theory, an essential compo nent of any person's social and psycholog ical functioning resides in a meaningful reciprocal relationship between him and at least one, if not a number, of relatively stable groups. Whether one chooses to conceptualize this in Erikson's terms of individual and group identity, in Freudian terms of identification and object rela

Since its inception almost a century ago, the Jehovah's Witness movement has been prophesying the impending disintegration of the established social order and its replacement by a millennial kingdom under theocratic rule. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of the impact of the group's millenarian orientation upon its development career. Attention is focused upon long-term modes of adjustment to recurrent prophetic failures, examining the ways in which the sect has adapted its collective identity to meet such crises. In this perspectives, the sect is seen as an informative case of the process of "self-fulfilling prophecy," operating as a source of both identity confirmation and identity change.

OCIAL scientists have suggested that the landscape in which an individual lives is a major factor in his self-perception and in the image he presents to society.1 One should be able, therefore, to identify different socioeconomic groups on the basis of residential landscapes. This has been done often in order to differentiate income and ethnic areas;2 however, far less obvious social differences may also be expressed in residential landscape choices. This paper presents evidence that subtle variations in the landscape tastes of two groups of nearly identical, high socioeconomic status are significant indicators of group identity. Furthermore, the boundary of social networks between the two groups corresponds closely to the boundary between landscapes. An inventory of exterior residential landscapes of all of the 1 139 houses in Bedford Village, the study area, was taken in June, July, and August, 1971. The principal research tools were observation of the landscapes, examination of the membership lists of social organizations, and casual conversation with members of the social groups. Speaking with real-estate brokers proved to be especially valuable.