The invention of psychopathology -- Malingering -- Doctoring -- Inculpating -- Sheltering -- Cheating -- Lying -- The burden of responsibility.

Psychiatry is increasingly dominated by the reductionist claim that mental illness is caused by neurobiological abnormalities such as chemical imbalances in the brain. Critical psychiatry does not believe that this is the whole story and proposes a more ethical foundation for practice. This book describes an original framework for renewing mental health services in alliance with people with mental health problems. It is an advance over the polarization created by the "anti-psychiatry" of the past.

This work provides an overview of traditional and contemporary ethical perspectives and critically examines a range of ethical and moral challenges present in ...

Psychiatric nursing is fraught with more ethical dilemmas than any other area of nursing practice. Ethical dilemmas arise on a day-to-day, if not moment-to-moment basis. The need to confront, appreciate and attempt to resolve these dilemmas represents a major challenge for the practitioner, the educationalist and the researcher. This edited text discusses a range of ethical issues that affect psychiatric nurses. The authors emphasise the direct experience of ethical dilemmas and also provide support from theory and research. Each chapter is (...) prefaced by an introduction to reflect the editors' view of the particular issues involved. This book will appeal to a wide cross-section of nurses and those who educate and manage them. The real-life scenarios which accompany each chapter will bring ethics to life for every reader. (shrink)

Failure to follow prescribed treatment has devastating consequences for those who are seriously and persistently mentally ill. Nurses, therefore, try to get clients to take psychotropic medication on a long-term basis. The goal is either compliance or adherence. Although current nursing literature has abandoned the term compliance because of its implications of coercion, in psychiatric nursing practice with patients suffering from serious long-term mental illness compliance and adherence are in fact different goals. The ideal goal is adherence, which requires the (...) patient to be an active participant in the team. This goal is consistent with nurses’ ethical values, but for such patients this is frequently unrealistic. If the person is severely psychotic, treatment may be involuntary and the goal compliance. Psychiatric nurses participate in involuntary treatment and thus should acknowledge the ethical implications of compliance as a goal and not obscure the issue by calling compliance adherence. (shrink)

The current dominant paradigm of mental disorder is that psychopathology is a deviation from normal physiological functioning of the brain. This paradigm is closely allied to the identity theory of mind in philosophy, which holds that mental phenomena are identical with the physical state of the brain. The assumptions of the biological model have policy implications, regardless of the utility or ‘truth’ of the paradigm, which should be made explicit for the assessment of ethics in mental health policy formulation. The (...) nature of mental phenomena has been debated throughout history, without consensus. Several critiques of the biological model are offered to encourage enquiring scepticism. The policy implications discussed are political conservatism, broadened rationales for forced treatment, utility in managed care, and the use of medical necessity criteria to allocate treatment. (shrink)