Bioethics and Mental Illness

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will address philosophical issues that arise in the context of reflection on mental illness and the way in which it is treated medically. Among the topics that the course typically examines are these: the first rule of ethics: do good and avoid evil; the debate of the causes of mental illness; two psychological models for the explanation of the psychological dimension of mental illness and well­-being: the attachment theory and the triangular theory of Lacan; the ethical guidelines of mental health professionals; the question to whether bio­ethical rules can be applied to the treatment of the mentally ill or whether different norms should be introduced; the idea that a mental health professional should have an ethical position or attitude. i.e., the task is not so much giving advice as to promote or elicit agency in the patient.