[Forensic psychiatry: contradictions between clinical practice and justice]

All the different branches in forensic psychiatry have to face identical handicaps resulting from the difficulties in cooperation with the law-court. For the psychiatrist, his identity as a therapist is contradictory to his forensic tasks. The paper deals with the resulting dilemmata (partiality v. neutrality; diagnostic approach v. legal consequence; psychiatric v. legal methodology and scientific standard). The best way for both sciences to cooperate is by reflecting these handicaps and dilemmata rather than denying them.