The purpose with the essay is to illuminate four former clients’ personal stories about the meeting with the authority in the Swedish welfare system and the institutionalization theywent through. The questions being asked in the essay focus on communication, the relationship concerning power and the former clients attitude towards the institutionalization as a treatment. Four interviews were held with former clients who were institutionalized sometime between the ages of 15-25. The results were then analyzed by theories focusing on communication as a way to gain power and how social interaction may influence the individual attitudes towards authorities. Out of the empiric three themes occurred and they are: communication, the exercise of power/communicative power and acknowledgment/attitude.

The results show that there is a connection between communicative power and attitude towards authority after the institutionalization. The lack of communication, as the interviews shown, between the client and the person working for the institution, has in three out of four cases led to a negative attitude towards the authorities. The fourth former client had a more positive experience and that resulted in a more positive attitude.