For some time now it has been considered both necessary and important to inform psychiatric patients about their illness and their treatment. Research confirms that informed patients are more likely to comply with the treatment that is prescribed. The research described here investigated how psychotic patients react when they are given a psychiatric diagnosis. At the same time we assessed how Belgian psychiatrists feel about their practice of communicating psychiatric diagnoses to patients. The results of our research show clearly differences between psychiatrists and patients, especially concerning the impact a psychiatric diagnosis makes on patients who receive it.