The Psychiatric Hospital in the Light of Modern Theoretical Trends in Psychiatry

The Soviet public health system is justifiably proud of its system of psychiatric care. Revolutionary demolition of the old society has led to extensive transformations in all fields of activity and to improvement in theoretical thinking and creative work. Preventive measures and the creation of a system of treatment and restoration of the ability of patients with various mental illnesses to work in any region of the country has resulted in a radical change in the history of psychiatry. We should emphasize that the creation of a system of psychiatric care through institutions differing in type and functions was a new feature. In order to understand the importance of this change, it is enough to recall that foreign psychiatry began thinking about the need to create a unified system encompassing both in- and out-patient care only several decades later, but in practice such a system has still not been established in a single developed, capitalist country.