It is still the prevailing view that the patient in the hospital shows a tendency towards regressive and infantile reactions. The author - using a sociology of knowledge approach - attempts to demonstrate that there exist however multiple differentiated patterns of awareness and behavior caused by the cognitive disorganization of the hospitalized individual: increased loss of self-control, heightened sensitivity, need for relevant informations, as well as egocentric perception.

Interactions with medical personal contain built-in conflict since the accomodation between the patient’s modified attern of expection and the hospital routines is problematic. Systematic observations and interviews of patients in medical hospital illustrate and confirm these hypotheses.