Ethical Psychiatry and Biosocial Humanism
LOUIS JOLYON WEST M.D.1
1 Professor and head, department of psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024
In discussing the ethical issues of special relevance to contemporary psychiatry, the author raises some provocative questions, ranging in subject from the practitioner's responsibility for the maintenance of professional competence to the ethical ramifications of some current treatment concepts. He concludes that psychiatry's task includes the development of a more satisfactory statement of human nature, from which a new and comprehensive ethical system can be derived.
