Machine derived contents note: Part One -- The Problem -- The History of Mental Hospitalization -- Part Two -- Trends in Hospitalization for Mental Disorders -- A Reanalysis of National Data -- Current Trends in the Annual Number of Inpatient Psychiatric Episodes -- Episodic Rate of Mental Hospitalization -- Trends in Length of Stay Per Psychiatric Episode -- Trends in the Proportion of Total Hospital Days that are for Mental Health Care -- Nursing Homes and Deinstitutionalization -- Readmissions -- Part Three -- Attempts To Treat the Hospitalized and Hospitalizable -- Alternative Treatment -- Noninstitutionalization -- Deinstitutionalization and the Problems of Subsequent Treatment, Chronicity, and the Homeless -- Part Four -- Problems with the Overall System -- National Expenditures for Mental Hospitalization -- The Medicare and Medicaid Programs -- Needs for New Knowledge -- Barriers to Effective Knowledge Acquisition and Use -- Summary and Conclusions