[Gentle psychiatry--metamorphosis of violence?].

The basic assumptions of reform psychiatry aim at the establishment of a benign, i.e. peaceful therapeutic regime which promotes the experience of meaningful interpersonal relationships. Yet purpose and therapeutic reality often show discrepancies. The peaceful dialogue is jeopardized by the psychiatric disorder itself, furthermore by the chimera of peacefulness which prevents "gentle psychiatry" from recognizing its own strategies of stigmatization and expulsion. Ideologies which take for granted free decision making even for those who are restricted by their illness tend to give legitimation for the withdrawal of necessary help. Especially dangerous patients are at risk of being expelled by a "gentle psychiatry" which intends to preserve the professional identity of goodness for the therapist.