[Severe mental disorders and the problem of hospitalization]

The problem of the hospitalization of patients with severe mental disorders. In relating three clinical cases, the author's purpose is to show that sometimes an hospitalization of long duration is necessary and that the psychiatrist has to be able to assume that decision for the patient's sake. In the first two cases, suicide was the issue, each time after a too-short period of hospitalization, given the antecedents in the first case, and in the second, not allowing that an efficient treatment be set up and accepted. The third case shows how a sufficiently long hospitalization (about 2 months) could enable the setting of a long-duration treatment which led to a sensible improvement of the patient's state.