The article illuminates milieu therapy as a collective and democratic tradition in the era of individualism. The article is based on a nine months ethnographic field research on daily life and milieu therapy in a psychiatric hospital. Milieu therapy is in its origin a psycho-social therapeutic tool which is based on a collective daily life, while policy documents of today are formulated in an individualistic way. In order to illuminate the tension between the collectivistic milieu therapy and individualistic considerations the article compares the tradition of «The therapeutic community» with milieu therapy of today. Milieu therapy of today can be considered individualistic. Milieu therapy efforts were addressed towards the individual patient, and not addressed towards the ward milieu as a whole. Furthermore, the ward milieu was organized for patients to take choices based on individual wishes and needs, and not for collectivistic purposes. The article discusses how the ward milieu can be organized for the purpose of considering individual patients' wishes and needs, as well as how to facilitate and utilize the possibilities of a larger psychosocial environment.
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