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Mrs. Lasker, your interest in this field and the promotion of Federal legislation, has it led you to an interest in any specific institution, any specific hospital dealing with mental illness?

I was initially interested in the Institute of Psychoanalysis in Chicago in the late '30s, and they were interested in the medical aspects of psychoanalysis. They were interested in showing that there were specific emotional factors relating to hypertension and to ulcers and to arthritis, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander.

And I've been interested in the Menninger Foundation because I'm an admirer of both Karl and Will Menninger, but they never really understood the importance of the National Mental Health Institute; they always resented that I didn't raise and give money to them and to their institution in Topeka. I always felt that if we had large enough funds nationally, their institution in Topeka would get infinitely more money than I could raise myself or give, and get it forever, as long as there was a problem. I never could kind of make them understand this.

Well, in any case, the mental health problem is far from solved even now. The state hospitals are so poorly staffed with psychiatrists, psychiatric social workers, social workers, nurses, attendants; everything is short, and the people are not treated energetically enough or looked after well enough to get them out more quickly. In places where they have done a good job, such as in Kansas and in a few special hospitals here, people can be