Avec les autres

The psychiatry department B of the Abbeville hospital is one of the few places in France where Institutional Psychotherapy is practiced, a form of humane psychiatry that places great importance on speech and exchanges between individuals. In this department, patients and caregivers organize daily life, activities and outings together. They also manage a cafeteria, the beating heart of this institution. Here, the treatment of mental illness is considered to be not only about medication and therapies, but also about a whole range of connections, contacts, small gestures, words and exchanges that sometimes make it possible to keep a person in life or bring them back to life. "Avec les autres" is a two-year chronicle of the daily life of the patients in this department and tells the story of the Covid-19 crisis in this institution.