Abstract
A person suffering a mental illness or disorder may differ dramatically from his or her previous well self. Family and close friends who knew the person before the onset of illness tend to regard the illness as obscuring their loved one's true self and see the goal of treatment as the restoration of that self. 'He is not really like this,' they will say with increasing desperation. Treatment teams and others, who have no acquaintance with the person when well, respond to what they see in front of them and do sometimes make harmful judgments of character based on the person's presentation when ill.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics |
| Editors | Bonnie Steinbock |
| Place of Publication | Oxford; New York |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | 91-113 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780191577475 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780199562411, 9780199273355 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Sep 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Keywords
- Family and friends
- Mental disorder
- Mental illness
- Moral agency
- The self
- Treatment
Cite this
Kennett, J. (2009). Mental Disorder, Moral Agency, and the Self. In B. Steinbock (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics (pp. 91-113). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199562411.003.0005