Volume 37 · Number 12
DECEMBER 2007

Psychiatric Ethics — A Complicated Challenge

By Michael Robertson, MB, BS, FRANZCP; Garry Walter, MB BS, BMedSc, PhD, FRANZCP

How did we get here? Socrates posed one of the most fundamental questions of human existence in pondering, “How should I live the good life?” The issue is brought into focus when contemplating what kind of professional life we seek as psychiatrists. In the dialogue Euthyphro, Socrates discusses the nature of what is good. Euthyphro contends that the pious or good is that which is endorsed by the gods. Socrates is at odds with such a “divine command” approach to morality, using an ingenious argument of logic, which positions the good prior to the existence of the gods — if the good is good because the gods tells us it is good, then good is independent of the gods, and we don’t need them. Such doubt casts a pall over the questions of how is man to live and, by extension, what is it to be a good physician.

ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS

Michael Robertson, MB, BS, FRANZCP, is the Director of Psychiatry at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He is a clinical lecturer in the Discipline of Psychological Medicine at the University of Sydney and is a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine at the University of Sydney. Dr. Robertson has published in the field of psychiatric ethics, philosophy, and psychiatry and psychiatry in popular culture. He has published research in the treatment of traumatic stress syndromes and is co-author of the book, Interpersonal Psychotherapy — A Clinician’s Guide.

Dr. Robertson is on the Editorial Board of Australasian Psychiatry, and is a member of the international board of advisors for the International Federation of Psychotherapy.

Garry Walter, MB, BS, FRANZCP, is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Sydney and Area Clinical Director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Northern Sydney Central Coast Health in New South Wales, Australia. He is Editor of Australasian Psychiatry and serves on several other editorial boards.

Prof. Walter has published more than 200 articles and book chapters and has won a number of prestigious research awards. His major research interests are in mood disorders in young people, physical treatments in psychiatry, psychiatric stigma, ethics, and publishing processes.