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- Title
Die Doppelfunktion der Psychiatrie.
- Authors
Steinert, Tilman
- Abstract
The so-called double function of psychiatry of helping and healing on the one hand and a social order function with interference with individual rights on the other has been increasingly criticized in recent years. This criticism is primarily expressed with reference to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but could also be deducted from the professional code of physicians and from a historical perspective. The article argues that the social order function of psychiatry results from the fact that people with severe dysfunctions of the organ responsible for decision-making, the brain, are treated. The criterion for the legitimation of interference with individual rights is not the diagnosis of a mental illness, but the impairment of the ability to make decisions. Neurological diseases of the central nervous system can also lead to such impairment. In many cases, ethically and in terms of liability law, there is not just a legitimation, but an obligation to intervene in civil liberties. A medical-ethical legitimation, however, cannot be derived if only interests of third parties are relevant. The legitimation of the use of legally anchored regulatory functions must also always be critically examined with regard to the proportionality of the danger to be averted and the depth of the intervention, the observance of human dignity in the implementation of measures, and the mandatory requirement of the lack of ability to form a free will.
- Publication
Recht & Psychiatrie, 2021, Vol 39, Issue 1, p28
- ISSN
0724-2247
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1486/RP-2021-01_28