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The paradox of compliance with consent in stress care: between the legal standard and psychiatric ethics Volume 87, issue 6, Juin-Juillet 2011

Author
Psychiatre, chef de service, centre hospitalier Jacques-Lacarin, BP 2757, 03207 Vichy Cedex, France

The legal fiction of consent conceived as the result of a rational decision made by the higher-ups must be confronted and not opposed to the reality of medical consent, which has gradually evolved and is rooted in the unconscious. In the case of care under stress, psychiatric ethics, inseparable from therapeutic intent, opens the possibility to overcome the paradox of the principle of consent by respect for the dignity of its development.