This article is part of the Cassel hospital collection and was written by Dennie Briggs, who died peacefully in June 2019 at the age of 92. He was a clinical / research psychologist and worked with Maxwell Jones at Dingleton Hospital in Scotland and later at Henderson Hospital while consulting for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders in London. He served as a consultant and Writer-in-Residence for the drug therapeutic communities in Rome. He was a Moderator and an active member of the Therapeutic Community Open Forum.