Although there is a common movement toward deinstitutionalization and the legal supervision of psychiatric restraint in Europe, there are also major differences in chronology and the forms taken by those explicit regulations, as well as important variations in the uses of coercion practices between countries and even within each state. This article turns to the specificities of the legal framework for psychiatric coercion in Switzerland, and then analyzes, from a sociological perspective, two situations in hospitals where the use of coercion has been effectively reduced. This is an attempt to highlight the regulatory activity carried out at the institutional level, an essential link in the management of these practices. It further aims to contribute to reflection on the injunction to reduce certain forms of coercion, by providing a picture of these practices in their social and institutional context.