INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC-TREATMENT - A RANGE OF PATIENTS ATTITUDES

In an interview study carried out in the Psychiatric Clinic of Tampere University Hospital, patients with functional psychoses showed positi ve attitudes towards involuntary psychiatric hospitalization as a soci etal issue. The legal status of the interviewees did not distinguish b etween their opinions, but the patients' personal experience of being coerced was related to less favourable attitudes. Patients' attitudes are discussed in relation to civil rights, paternalism, individualism, and collectivism.