In a pediatric ward the absolute priority is to make room for potential entrants who present the specific somatic pathologies the ward is competent to deal with: the inevitable management of this flow necessitates hasty choices and decisions inconsistent with the slow tempo necessary to the organization of treatment in our discipline. However, though divergences in the temporality of treatment remain, the contrast between somaticians and “ psyche-ists ” tends not to be so pronounced once they are engaged in joint treatments on a daily basis. A certain softening of the pediatric culture championing short hospitalizations probably corresponds to the psychologist partners’ care in constructing acceptable arguments, in this sort of context, in defense of “ indications ” for prolonged hospital stays.

Adolescence, septembre 2002, 20, 3, 525-535