[Physician's group rounds in the psychiatric hospital as an element of inpatient therapy (author's transl)].

The conventional "round" during which the individual patient is seen by the physician and his assistants, has been replaced in many psychiatric hospitals by the so-called "group round". This is the result of the efforts made by therapists to reduce the distance and "gradients" between therapists and the patients they have to look after. In this respect, therefore, the "group round" is based on the principle of collective therapy, i.e. of the therapeutic community. The present article discusses the attitude and ideology forming part of the traditional round in hospitals. The form and organisation of the "group round" as practiced for the last decade in a sociopsychiatrically oriented University hospital are described. The article goes into details of the therapeutic value and advantages of this institutionalized interaction with the patient, basing on the author's experience, while pointing out the limitations of this method and the risks involved whenever it is employed without previous consideration of its aims and possibilities.