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This paper seeks to compare the caregiver’s views on psychotropic drugs to those of the families of patients with mental illnesses. The results indicate that, despite some points of similarity, the families’ representations concerning psychotropic drugs differ from those of the mental health professionals. The latter consider drugs to be a quick remedy whose prescription is justified by their effectiveness on the daily symptoms subjectively experienced as painful or disabling for both family and patient. As for the families, they tend to express mixed and even paradoxical attitudes. Psychotropic drugs are sometimes perceived as a solution that worsens and legitimizes deviant behaviors, and sometimes seen as a stigmatizing element. Families also complain about the high cost of psychotropic drugs and their many side effects, which condemn the patient to a living death, a social death. However, families and caregivers agree that psychotropic drugs remain essential at times of crisis.