[Supervision in social psychiatry]

The clarification of the concept of supervision and its delimitation from therapy and administrative intervention by institutions superiors is followed by a sketch of its specific problems in Social-psychiatry. These are related to the patients personality structure, the patients difficulties and the specific treatment modalities. Supervision is not only important for the amelioration of therapies and the education of the younger colleagues, but for the prevention of professional diseases of psychiatric staff members too.