[Letters to the editor : Cards on the table with Carlo Sterlin.]

In this interview with Mrs. Thi Hong Trang Dao, resident in Psychiatry at the University of Montreal, Carlo Sterlin retraces his career of 25 years in psychiatry in Quebec and makes a critical review of his experience in various fields: practical clinical work both in urban centers and in remote areas, teaching, research, practice amongst ethnic groups, etc. He endeavours to show that community practice is not truly biopsychosocial and that, so far as it is confined, refuses respon-sability and rejects bio-energetics, it contributes to the aggravation of the mental health of the population. Taking his inspiration from the work of W. Reich and from the traditions of non western cultures, he suggests ideas to be explored which are likely to open up genuine alternative methods of intervention. Like wise he invites the new generations of clinicians to leave the well worn paths established by the dominant ideologies in order to free their creativity.