[Inpatient psychotherapy in West Germany. Sociocultural determinants, developmental stages and current status, international comparison].

In the Federal Republic of Germany, stationary psychotherapeutic treatment of the psychogenically ill in independent institutions has undergone and expansion without international parallel in the last few decades. This development is based on a number of particular sociocultural circumstances that have combined to exercise optimal influence. A review of the situation--it is estimated that there are ca. 5,000 beds for psychotherapeutic cases--and an international survey supplement the analysis of an area of care that has developed parallel to out-patient psychotherapy.