We are crazy for phones

Abstract

This article questions the use of telephone in a mental health institution, as part of the regular activities within the new psychiatric practices. It leads to the discussion about the legitimacy of the patients' right to hold telephone conversations, while it raises a debate about the therapeutic approach proposed by the institution, comparing with the essentially normative approach by the Moral Treatment. Finally, it presents some practical rules to face the problem, to try to overcome the tendency to oversimplify and to decrease its importance, which is part of the responses that reproduce the old practices within institutions.