ABSTRACT
Within traditional Swedish psychiatric treatment, people with debilitating chronic psychosis were placed in remote residential care homes. These residential homes were complemented with ‘family care’ for those patients who made least fuss. That implies a kind of boarding condition in the country without any expectations of meaningful activities. In the past, these methods of care represented a necessary and humanitarian need for security, food, space and attention for those patients who could not look after themselves. Today they express an outdated and counterproductive psychiatric attitude. It strengthens the identity of being a ‘chronic’ patient and inhibits the natural tendency towards healing which depends on appropriate stimulation and self-reliance assisted by specific methods of treatment.
