Overview of psychiatric ethics VI: newer approaches to the field

The aim of this paper is to consider two recent approaches to moral philosophy - postmodernism and discourse ethics - and evaluate their potential contribution to psychiatric ethics.

Postmodern ethics arose from the perceived moral failures of the grand theories of ethics, as evident in the horrors of the twentieth century. As a result, such approaches to ethics emphasize the individual's moral situation in a particular context, such as the doctor-patient relationship. Postmodern approaches have some relevance to current and future psychiatric practice. Discourse ethics sees ethical norms generated by a process of a discourse procedure, in which all members of a discourse are able to express their views. Discourse ethics allows the generation of moral 'norms', which are universal in as far as all those affected by them can accept their consequences. Applied to professional ethics, psychiatrists are members of a large group engaged in a discourse with diverse parts of society, yet exist within small moral communities in which micro-discourses are compatible with different individual ethical positions.