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62 - Psychiatric ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

By
Sidney Bloch  and
Stephen A. Green
Edited by
Peter A. Singer  and
A. M. Viens
Sidney Bloch
Affiliation:
Professor University of Melbourne Australia
Stephen A. Green
Affiliation:
Clinical Professor Georgetown University Hospital USA
Peter A. Singer
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
A. M. Viens
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Mrs. J, a 22-year-old secretary, began to exhibit restlessness, perplexity, and remoteness from her husband, Mr. K, following the birth of her first baby 10 weeks earlier. A psychiatrist was summoned after she had visited several neighbors without obvious purpose. He found a reticent, detached woman complaining that, “They have been out to get me from the beginning,” and alluding to “world famine and starving children.” Mental status examination revealed vague, paranoid thinking but firm denial of suicidal and homicidal impulses; she was not obviously delirious. Mrs. J resisted the psychiatrist's recommendation that she be admitted to the local psychiatric hospital. Mr. K supported her in this, insisting that he did not regard his wife as mentally ill and feared she would deteriorate if placed alongside genuinely disturbed patients.

What is psychiatric ethics?

Psychiatric ethics is concerned with the application of moral rules to situations and relationships specific to the field of psychiatry. Resolution of ethical dilemmas confronting psychiatrists, as illustrated by the above case, requires deliberation grounded in a moral theoretical framework that provides methods and justifications for clinical decision making. An outline of such theories is covered in the introductory chapter of the book. We will focus exclusively on ethical aspects of clinical practice that are especially challenging to psychiatrists and briefly offer a preferred theoretical framework to deal with them.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 487 - 494
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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  • Psychiatric ethics
  • Edited by Peter A. Singer, University of Toronto, A. M. Viens, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics
  • Online publication: 30 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545566.072
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  • Psychiatric ethics
  • Edited by Peter A. Singer, University of Toronto, A. M. Viens, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics
  • Online publication: 30 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545566.072
Available formats
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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.

  • Psychiatric ethics
  • Edited by Peter A. Singer, University of Toronto, A. M. Viens, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics
  • Online publication: 30 October 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545566.072
Available formats
×