Abstract
Opinions held by medical staff of psychiatric institutions on the use of coercion in psychiatry are discussed in the paper. The data were obtained using a questionnaire based on the draft of the Mental Health Act of May 1993. The staff of psychiatric hospitals are concordant with the Act provisions concerning coercion in psychiatry. However, they point to the necessity of more extensive recommendations for some coercive procedures. Neither radical nor liberal solutions were chosen by this group, while traditional, hitherto used ones were accepted by them. This is due to their adoption of the medical perspective in the question of psychiatric treatment.