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Published on: February 16, 2011
Ethically sensitive mental health care: is there a need for a unique ethics for psychiatry?
1School of Rural Health, University of Melbourne, PO Box 386, Wangaratta, Victoria 3676, Australia. acrowden@unimelb.edu.au
Objective:
This article takes up the challenge to comment and extend on Jennifer Radden's claims for a 'unique ethics for psychiatry' articulated in 'Notes towards a professional ethics for psychiatry', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 2002; 36:52-59.
Method:
The author is analytically trained in bioethics and employs the method of con-ceptual analysis.
Results:
Psychiatry is a unique mental health care practice which calls for unique ethical responses. However, it doesn't necessarily follow that a unique ethics for psychiatry is required.
Conclusions:
A more plausible explanation for how philosophical ethics informs the unique nature of psychiatric practice is better articulated within claims about the role-related nature of particular health care practices and the influence that the virtue of phronesis (practical wisdom) has on a clinician's decision-making and judgement.
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