[Sociotherapeutical competence in a team (author's transl)].

The author agrees with Wing in defining sociotherapy as a deliberate reshaping of the environment aiming at reducing the signs of disease. This type of therapy has proved effective alongside the other two important kinds of therapy in psychiatry, namely, physical treatment and psychotherapy. Sociotherapy is explained by means of examples which can be classified as general sociotherapy and individual sociotherapy. Its application in the in-patient field is at present only possible if the female and male nurses accept it as a challenge and of the other members of team recognise and discuss it importance. Administrative bodies must be won over as partners in sociotherapy.