[The social construction of the mental health field.]

The author starts with the fact that every mental health worker, to give meaning to its practice, refers to his knowledge of his practices social frame; he then explores some of the social dimensions inherent to a definition of the mental health field. This social elaboration of the mental health's field comes about the same way discomfort or diseases are defined, or through the introduction of notions often implicit, such as social adaptation, values, responsibility, similarity between therapists and patients. The author also tries to define certain elements of what he calls a "psy" sub-culture.