In this book, we have reported on a behavioral research study of hospital patients that included a post-hospital follow-up and an investigation of pa… - Roy R. Grinker, Sr.

The Society for General Systems Theory and its publication General Systems was a mixed bag. Few authors were actually doing research - they philosophized, and many prematurely resolved dilemmas by mathematical equations in a language poorly understood by the empirical investigator.

In his attempt to produce an integrative overview of twentieth-century psychiatric history and thought, Grinker has given us a book that is full of broad generalizations about the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to mental health and psychiatric research.

The formation of such feelings of obligation and loyalty to any group with which one is identified is of the highest significance to good morale. It is the essence of the powerful patriotic feelings which are stimulated in times of war, but which have their origins in earliest childhood. …Not all Americans have been able to develop a range of identification large enough to include the nation and thus to develop strong feelings of loyalty and obligation. To some extent this ability seems to be a measure of social maturity.