Changes in psychiatric attitudes are described and elucidated on the basis of the autor's experiences at the large M.I.T. Psychiatric Service in Boston. The traditional patient centered care has been taken over by a more community centered approach. The development of cooperation models between medical and nonmedical university officials — savegarding the privacy and personal aspects of the patient as an individual notwithstanding the primaly attention for system change — shows remarkable resemblences with Dutch university developments. Modern university psychiatry gives within a limited social system a clear picture of what community psychiatry can be today.