The author compares his experience in two psychiatric institutions: an old one of the traditional type, a new one of the psychotherpeutic type. He tries and defines the role of the different members of the staff and compares the evolution of the traditional institute and of the more recent clinic. In the psychotherapeutic institution, there is a drift of the therapeutic role from the physician to the nurse, and finally from the nurse to the patient himself. Despite the fact that they are open, the therapeutic groups become more efficient with time in relation to the maturation of the nursing personal. This slow growth of the psychotherapeutic role of the institutional group finally depends as much on the inhibitions of the nursing staff than on the anxiety of the patients.
