This is Volume V of seven in a collection on the Sociology of Mental Health. Originally published in 1964, the object of this book is to study a particular group of social workers, those trained as psychiatric social workers. It was begun in the belief that their work should not be ‘left to the imagination’ and that an accurate factual picture of their training, practice, professional activities, research and writing would inform and clarify. It has been designed to answer certain questions: who are psychiatric social workers? What do they do? Are they ‘half-baked’ or adequately trained? How has psychiatric social work been moulded?