The interface between psychiatry and law is complex and has the potential for gross misunderstanding. Each discipline has its own concerns with regard to the psychiatric patient, and there is a significant language gap between the two disciplines. The language of the medical discipline describes the patient's state on a continuum that ranges from extremely ill to completely healthy. The judicial language, on the other hand, is a binary language: the patient is either competent or incompetent, either dangerous or not dangerous. This article describes three potential areas for discourse in the Israeli context: involuntary hospitalization, criminal responsibility and legal representation of involuntarily hospitalized patients. The two systems can be complementary only if both sides make a serious effort to communicate and respect each other's principles and language.