Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 13, 2025

Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
[Theoretical foundations of clinical ethics consultation in psychiatry]
Jakov Gather1,2, Matthé Scholten3
1Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Präventivmedizin, LWL-Universitätsklinikum, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Alexandrinenstr. 1-3, 44791, Bochum, Deutschland. jakov.gather@rub.de.
Background:
Clinical ethics consultants support mental health professionals in identifying and analyzing moral problems in clinical practice.
Objective:
Presentation of key ethical concepts and normative theories that are relevant for clinical ethics consultation in mental healthcare.
Material And Methods:
Conceptual and ethical analyses.
Results:
After distinguishing between morality, ethics and law, moral problems are differentiated from other types of problems encountered in clinical practice. Subsequently, key ethical concepts and the concept of moral distress are clarified. In relation to the normative framework a distinction is made between philosophical ethical theories and medical ethical theories, such as principlism and the ethics of care. Finally, justification tests for ethical decision-making in situations of danger to self or others based on the harm principle and soft paternalism are proposed.
Conclusion:
Knowledge of key ethical concepts and normative theories is important for the identification and analysis of moral problems in mental healthcare and should be given greater weight in the training of clinical ethics consultants.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Psychosurgery
Historical Development of Psychosurgery
In the 1930s, Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz introduced a surgical procedure designed...
Psychodynamic Therapy
Ethics and Bioethics
Elements Crucial for Effective Psychotherapy
The Therapeutic Alliance
The therapeutic alliance refers to the relationship between the therapist and the client. The alliance strengthens when the therapist and the client engage in a nurturing, supportive, trusting, empathetic, and respectful relationship, improving therapeutic outcomes. Therapists must monitor this relationship...
Ethical Dilemmas I
Let us explore some examples to understand the potentially complex moral decisions nurses face.
Take the case of caring for minors, particularly in areas related to reproductive...
Ethical Dilemmas II

