 Though he acknowledges that already dire staff shortages were made worse by the drafting of hundreds of medical professionals, he characterizes accusations that hospital conditions were worsened because of the war, having previously been quite good, as simply false.The book is divided into six parts, with a total of twenty-two chapters.Within these chapters, Deutsch evaluates the conditions of twelve state hospitals for mental illness (both how their patients are cared for and the conditions under which they are required to operate), examines his society's current conceptions of mental illness and how the mentally ill are treated, examines the role of patients’ families, discusses how care for the mentally ill has evolved, declares how and why the current system is broken, and suggests how it might be reformed.