In modern psychiatry, one of the main trends is the transition from a biomedical model of mental disorders treatment to a biopsychosocial one. Cultural therapy is considered to be an effective method of influencing the mentally ill. The purpose of the article is to analyze the practice of its implementation in the work of psychiatric hospitals in Leningrad in the 1930s. During this period, the point of view became widespread among doctors, according to which a set of cultural activities that are consistent with the general course of treatment, aimed at restoring health and maintaining social communication skills of patients, can be considered therapy (along with physiotherapy, medication and surgery). The article provides data on various forms of cultural therapy. Depending on the degree of participation of patients in them, they were divided into active and passive. This allowed us to involve patients with different diagnoses in the work. Cultural therapy was aimed not only at the personality of a particular person, but also at forming relationships in the hospital team, as well as at correcting the attitude to patients in psychiatric hospitals in Soviet society. The study leads to the conclusion that in the psychiatric hospitals of Leningrad in the 1930s, this activity was mainly applied and experimental in nature, with a clear weakness in the theoretical understanding of its results.