In this group study the authors analyze the attitudes of respondents towards mental patients, drug users and alcoholics in 1988. In the first place, the general social view of these groups is examined, followed by a consideration of the causes of mental illnesses, drug addiction and alcoholism. The study then focuses on the attitudes about the harmfulness of specific mental illnesses for the wider society and individuals, and how various categories of psychiatric patients ought to be treated. In the concluding section stereotypes about the mentally ill, drug users and alcoholics are examined.