“democratization” and authority in a therapeutic community

The phrase “doctor's orders” reflects the important aspect of authority in therapeutic situations. Yet the avoidance of coercive authority has become an important element in the relation be tween the psychotherapist and his patient. How can the two as pects of therapy be reconciled, especially in a hospital, where considerable centralization of authority is necessary just to run the hospital? In the attempt to solve this problem, the notion of a “thera peutic community” has evolved, an experimental form of organi zation aimed at “democratizing the authority system of the hospital.”