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This article shows that in a context of “bed shortages”, which impose the rapid discharge of patients from psychiatric hospitals, medication compliance is largely obtained through medical injunction. In contrast, the care of patients outside the hospital depends massively on the injection of slow-release medicines which have a chemical action on the body for several weeks. Finally, by looking at the taking of medicines, which falls somewhere between constraint and consent, we can gain a better understanding of the contemporary reconfigurations of power, and their impacts, within psychiatric care.