This brief publication contains a series of papers dealing with the subject of leisure. It encounters the predictable problems when a committee sets itself the task of writing about a topic that its members can not define. The ambiguities of leisure coupled with the ambiguities of mental health quite naturally lead to a somewhat diffuse presentation. Specific papers are devoted to distinct subtopics. However, there is frequent overlap of content among the papers. This could be viewed as consensus or as redundancy, depending upon your preferred frame of reference.
The focal objective of the publication is to bring leisure under the purview of psychiatrists. The authors "hope to stimulate their (psychiatrists') interest and to increase their (psychiatrists') participation in developing a deeper understanding of the uses of free time." Historical antecedents of the author group can best be understood by reading first the last chapter