Discussion:
Mental Disorders & Forced Treamtent Issues
Questions:
1 How do you feel about someone who has been hospitalized for a mental disorder? Would you date someone if you knew they had been hospitalized? What if they had been in the hospital for a strictly physical illness? Is there a difference in your feelings? Why? Does this affect your willingness to seek therapy for your own problems, or for those of your friends and family? Why is our society so frightened by psychological disorders?
2 What are the ethics of forced mandatory treatment for psychological disorders? What are the patient's rights to refuse treatment? When is it society's right to control an individual and force treatment or involuntary commitment? If a person is threatening suicide, should he or she be forced into treatment? Would it be right for a therapist to allow a person to make suicide a matter of personal choice, an expression of "free will?"