Individuals, social changes and psychiatric services: continuity and innovation.

Over the last few years, psychiatry has had to deal more in depth with the mutation of social frames and of problems expressed by the community, which has changed itself, in particular at a cultural level. The historical attitude of psychiatry, which is to combine a scientific approach with recognizing the rights of all individuals involved in the healing system, can be very helpful in keeping services in touch with the new needs of society and places the neurosciences in a peculiar position.