Rethinking a dilemma in psychiatric practice

Abstract

Psychiatry differs from all other medical disciplines in one aspect. Every psychiatric practitioner has to face a particular ethical dilemma in her/his daily professional work. The ethical issue arises in the context of treatment and care of a person afflicted with some mental illness and it arises because the patient’s view of and choice regarding his/her own condition and the view and opinion of the professional differ and are contrasting. The conflict arises from difference of opinion between the service user and experiencer of suffering on one hand and the clinician as knowledge-power
holder.