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Ethics and norms in psychiatry and mental health Volume 87, issue 6, Juin-Juillet 2011

Author
Psychiatre, docteur en philosophie, présidente du Comité d’aide à la réflexion éthique (Care), centre hospitalier de Cholet, service de psychiatrie, secteur 49G08, 1, rue Marengo, 49325 Cholet Cedex, France

The legitimacy of psychiatry as a medical discipline, both different from neurology and free from any hygienist tropism, lies in its double background: natural sciences and human sciences. The central question of what being ill means for oneself, the environment, for society, as well as defining when mental health does or does not come within the field of psychiatry, is only asked because to be ill is not only a matter of biology but actually involves human interest. Thus, asking once more the question of health and illness, normal and pathologic, referring to the fundaments of psychiatry, reveals how much the normative potential of psychiatry is up-to-date, requiring the strengthening of its ethical standards.