Autonomy and Mental Disorder

Abstract

Reviews the book, Autonomy and Mental Disorder edited by Lubomira Radoilska (2012). This book centers on a presumption that mental illness represents an internal threat to individual autonomy and critically addresses this presumption and its implications. The editor has recruited a predominantly British team composed mainly of philosophers. As such, American psychiatrists will find the book fresh in at least 2 respects: (1) that it approaches individualistic autonomy from a questioning rather than an idealizing stance and (2) that it departs somewhat from the usual competency-capacity forensic focus that orthodox medical education tends to take on the subject. For all of its laudable qualities and content, the book can sometimes be a difficult, even frustrating, book for the philosophically uninitiated. In its lesser moments it may seem intellectually self-indulgent and inutile for a volume in a 'philosophy and psychiatry' series. Figuring those requirements out is a worthy personal and professional project well served by this challenging text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)