It is noted that for Freud the couch is at the center of the psychoanalytic cure, but that this is less true today for the new psychoanalytic techniques. As an example, a survey documents the place of the couch in the psychiatric institution of the University of Lausanne. 82 trained psychiatrists of the adult psychiatric department were asked to fill in a questionnaire. Among the 56 psychiatrists who answered, 17 declared having a couch in their office. Whatever the theoretical orientation of their psychotherapeutic practice, psychiatrists used it for many other things than psychoanalytic cure. It is concluded that this tends to reinforce the view that the couch, apart from its role in psychoanalysis, may serve as a sign of recognition and membership of a social group that differentiates psychotherapists from classical psychiatrists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)