Interpersonal Aspects of Psychiatric Hospitalization

Abstract

In the first part of this study, we reported our interpretations of various interpersonal aspects of admission to a psychiatric hospital.¹Our interest in this patient group continued, and in this paper we have extended our study through the period these patients were in the hospital. The principal aim of this aspect of the study was to see if we could determine the relationships between certain distinctions we drew in various admission phenomena and some psychiatric hospital treatment concepts. Here, we examine the concepts of the importance of diagnosis, the nature and goals of treatment, length of hospital stay, and the basis for discharge. To aid the reader in understanding the points we wish to make, we shall very briefly summarize findings of that earlier investigation which have special bearing on this phase of the work. The setting of our study is an