Radio: Sedative

Even the mentally ill feel television’s hypnotic spell. Indiana State Prison has already reported that television 1) has a calming effect on its mental-case prisoners, and 2) results in a saving on sedatives. Last week, in rural Amityville, N.Y., Dr. George E. Carlin installed five television sets for his mental patients at Louden-Knickerbocker Hall, a 63-year-old private sanatorium. Said Owner John F. Louden: “We’re using TV as a form of occupational therapy, to take the patients’ minds off themselves and to let them live nearer to a normal life.”

All patients except the “acutely disturbed” will see the nightly programs. As a precaution against extra-critical reactions, the TV screens are covered by non-shatterable Plexiglas and the sets encased in steel “tamperproof” cabinets. Carlin’s patients like comedy shows. Western films are banned (gunplay overstimulates), but drama shows are all right if they are not too dramatic. Carlin’s only rule: his patients must not see “anything depressing or anything to cause excitement.” So far, he reports with satisfaction, most TV programs do not violate this rule.