[Therapeutic community. Part 1 : Definition, characteristics and evolution.]

In this article, the authors analyze the evolution and development of the therapeutic community concept in the Anglo-Saxon world. In an initial section, they define this concept and its characteristics. Then they make explicit the key concepts which underlie therapeutic intervention in a typical therapeutic community : that of Maxwell Jones at Belmont Hospital. Finally, on the basis of the work of Mosher and Menn, of Berke, and of Sassolas, they elucidate the criticisms made by the above mentionned authors with regard to the treatment of psychosis practised in the institutional treatment system, and they illustrate the approach proposed by these therapist-theoreticians.