| Abstract: | After a brief review of the traditional justifications for and objections to involuntary psychiatric interventions, a new legal mechanism accommodating the interests of both supporters and opponents of such interventions is proposed. Fashioned after the model of the last will and the living will, the psychiatric will provides a mechanism whereby individuals could plan, while rational and sane, for how they wish to be treated in the future, should others consider them to be irrational or insane. Individuals who dread the power of psychosis and desire protection from it by embracing, in case of "need," the use of involuntary psychiatric interventions could execute a psychiatric will in keeping with their beliefs. Individuals who dread the power of psychiatry and desire protection from it by rejecting, regardless of "need," the use of involuntary psychiatric interventions could execute a psychiatric will in keeping with their beliefs. Thus, no one who believes in psychiatric protectionism would be deprived of its alleged benefits, while no one who disbelieves in it would be subjected to its policies and practices against his or her will. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
