Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T15:09:15.656Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

Get access

Summary

When a therapist and a patient meet to address the needs created by mental disorder, their developing relationship is bounded by rules that determine the appropriateness of interventions considered and performed. These rules are based not only on knowledge about the biological and psychological bases of disorder, but also on values which, like the therapies that can be employed, not only provide a range of alternatives, but also set limits on actions.

This book is about a particular subset of values dealing with ethics. Ethics is a discipline concerned with understanding the right-making and wrong-making characteristics of actions. The practitioners who analyze the ethical dimensions of human thought and interaction must examine deeply held beliefs derived from personal experience concerning right and wrong, cultural mores founded on the conventions of tradition, values received from and embodied in decisions of courts and legislatures, historical conventions developed by the health care professions over time and embodied in documents such as ethical codes, and scholarly works on ethics.

In this book, we approach ethics through case studies. Our goal is to present case material that can provide clinicians with a basis for learning and reflection, preferably in interaction with their colleagues. The cases used are real and are derived from clinical situations and consultative experiences of the authors, and their colleagues. The use of the case method, as applied to problems of mental illness, was developed by the authors at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, where ethics rounds were begun in 1979 and continue in the present.

Type
Chapter
Information
Divided Staffs, Divided Selves
A Case Approach to Mental Health Ethics
, pp. 1 - 2
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×