Autonomous action and autonomy-subverting psychiatric conditions

The following theses are defended in this paper: (1) The concept of autonomous action is centrally relevant to understanding numerous psychiatric conditions, namely, conditions that subvert autonomy; (2) The details of an analysis of autonomous action matter; a vague or rough characterization is less illuminating; (3) A promising analysis for this purpose (and generally) is a version of the "multi-tier model". After opening with five vignettes, I begin the discussion by highlighting strengths and weaknesses of contributions by other authors who examine the relationship between autonomy and autonomy-subverting psychiatric conditions. I then present an analysis of the concept of autonomous action, before employing this analysis in a suggestive exploration of the conditions illustrated in the vignettes.