The psychiatrist and the patient's relatives

Both the literature and the writers' own experience point to the vital importance of eliciting co-operation rather than hostility from the relatives of mental patients. Improvement as well as deterioration in a patient's condition is often seen to hinge directly upon the attitude of his relatives. For that reason, as well as for the practical consideration of returning the patient to his family under the most favorable circumstances possible, the psychiatrist must recognize and attempt to relieve the source of anxiety in hostile relatives—rather than return their hostility, or try to hold them at arm's length. This can often be accomplished, with a minimum of effort but a maximum of benefit, by employing simple, suggestive psychotherapy in interviews with relatives.