Fear of the unknown is a very universal fear. Fear of the unknown hospital is a very universal fear among the mentally ill. Actually, many people have a fear of hospitals even if they are not mentally ill. Even without a harrowing experience, most people don't view the hospital as somewhere they want to visit, unless they're there to visit another patient. Add to that the horror stories of generations gone by and the imagination of Hollywood and it's amazing that the psychiatric hospitals have any voluntary patients at all to treat.

Fortunately, times have changed and so have most hospital environments. Sure, a few archaic practices still exist, as do a few unenlightened doctors, but the overall philosophy of confining patients to a hospital for years, or even a lifetime, has evolved into a philosophy of helping patients become productive members of society. The concept of transforming the mentally ill into productive, functioning members of society is not a new one but actual implementation really only began in the 1960