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Ethics, Culture, and Psychiatry: International
Perspectives is a textbook that explores the best ways to promote
the use of the Declaration of Madrid, which outlines ethical standards for
psychiatric practice throughout the world. The book is written with two
questions in mind, both easy to pose and difficult to answer:
• Is it possible to formulate a set of principles that will be valid
for all psychiatrists, regardless of the cultures to which they belong or in
which they live and practice, or are there as many sets of ethical
principles as there are cultures?
• If there is such a set of
principles, what should we do to ensure that psychiatry as a discipline
makes a significant contribution to societal good without helping the evil?
To facilitate the exploration of this territory, 15 experts from a
variety of cultures examine the most pressing ethical issues prevalent
within the current practice of psychiatry. Many of the dilemmas probed in
this book are routinely encountered by clinicians who work in increasingly
multicultural societies. The text covers issues that are broadly relevant to
clinical practice and research, including:
• An overview of ethics and societies around the world
•
Discussions of ethical practices and dilemmas specific to various cultural
regions
• Transcultural debate on overarching issues, such as
incompetent patients, informed consent, and mental health law reform
•
The complete copy of The Declaration of Madrid printed in the appendix
Readers will find that this is a textbook that stimulates and supports, rather than closes, the debate on ethical aspects of professional psychiatric behavior. Ethics, Culture, and Psychiatry: International Perspectives is much more than just a book on ethics – it is a major contribution to understanding the impact of culture and history on the ethical practice of medicine around the world, and a continuous search for a consensus on how to live together and make contributions to the well-being of people with mental illness, their families, and the family of humans on our planet.
Rapid scientific developments can obscure the more important role of ethics. The editors of this volume are to be congratulated for recognizing and fulfilling an obligation to the field.
— Robert Cancro, M.D.
In an increasingly multicultural society, most clinicians in the United States routinely encounter many of the ethical dilemmas probed in this book. They will, no doubt, find the content of this edited work compelling and thought provoking reading that is broadly relevant to clinical practice and research.
[T]his is a book that will be food for thought as international ethics in psychiatric practice is debated in the future.
The editors have surely taken on a daunting task, and they have succeeded. The volume proffers a culturally panoramic view of ethics and psychiatry. It should satisfy readers aspiring to basic knowledge of the ethical practices of psychiatry, particularly from a transcultural perspective. And indeed, the volume is a boon to readers interested in the thorny question of whether, and if so to what degree, issues relating to ethics and psychiatry may transcend not-inconsiderable cultural chasms. . . . I recommend the volume heartily to all readers genuinely interested in weaving ethical and cultural strands within psychiatric practice.
— Morton D. Sosland, M.D.
Ahmed Okasha is Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association and President-Elect of the WPA. He is also Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Mental Health in the Institute of Psychiatry at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.
Julio Arboleda-Flórez is a Member of the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association and Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Norman Sartorius is Past President of the World Psychiatric Association and Professor of Psychiatry at the Hospitaux Universitaires de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland.
Section I: Ethics and Psychiatry Around the
World
Chapter 1. The impact of Arab culture on psychiatric
ethics
Chapter 2. Conflicts and crises in Latin America
Chapter 3. A
West Mediterranean perspective
Chapter 4. Scandinavian
approaches
Chapter 5. Managed care in the United States
Chapter 6.
Ethics in Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter 7. The Indian
experience
Chapter 8. Ethics and psychiatry in China
Chapter 9.
Intersubjectivity and its influence on psychiatry in Japan
Section II:
Overarching Issues
Chapter 10. Research involving incompetent patients:
a current problem in light of German history
Chapter 11. Informed
consent: a historical and medical perspective
Chapter 12. An
international perspective on mental health law reform
Appendix: The
Declaration of Madrid
Index