In 1951 Joan M. Erikson, a craftswoman and writer, was asked to develop a program of planned activities for the patients at the Austen Riggs Center, a small private institution for the emotionally disturbed. In this book she and her co-workers describe their experience and its wider applications. The authors offer a rationale for their own ideas of the central role of activity in all recovery and rehabilitation, emphasizing throughout that planned activities in therapeutic communities are not just another form of adjunctive therapy. Activity is a vital component of change, and without activity and change there is no recovery and no growth.