Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-7l9ct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-11T08:37:44.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - Mental Capacity

Imagining the Future

from Part II - Psychiatry and Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2025

Gareth S. Owen
Gareth S. Owen
Affiliation:
King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Get access

Summary

Continues the discussion of mental capacity with expansion of the debates brought by the romantic perspective. Presents the political demand for radical equality coming from left romanticism with its wild ‘abolitionist’ agenda on the one hand, and a seeding of some new social approaches to capacity assessment on the other. A deeper inquiry into mental capacity and mood disorder using romantic ideas of temporality is presented as additional stimulus for the evolution of mental capacity. Some characteristics of mental capacity fitting it to a ‘superconcept’ are explained, which may guide future interdisciplinary research and teaching.

Keywords

CRPDmental capacitydepressionmaniatemporalitysuperconcept
Type
Chapter
Information
Psychiatry and Human Nature
Classic and Romantic Perspectives
 , pp. 133 - 144
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

McGilchrist, I. The Matter with Things. London: Perspectiva Press; 2021.Google Scholar
Rousseau, J-J. Of The Social Contract and Other Political Writings. London: Penguin; 2012.Google Scholar
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, General Comment No 1, Article 12: Equal recognition before the law (UN, 2014).Google Scholar
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). A/RES/61/106.Google Scholar
Ruck Keene, A, Kane, NB, Kim, SYH, Owen, GS. Mental capacity: Why look for a paradigm shift? Med Law Rev. 2023;31(3):340–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dworkin, R. Life’s Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom. New York: Vintage Books; 1994.Google Scholar
Trollope, A. The Last Chronicle of Barset. London: Penguin; 2002.Google Scholar
Owen, G, Freyenhagen, F, Hotopf, M, Martin, W. Temporal inabilities and decision-making capacity in depression. Phenomenol Cog Sci. 2015;14(1):163–82.Google Scholar
McGilchrist, I. Depression is not like anything on Earth. In Foster, C, Herring, J, editors. Depression: Law and Ethics, pp. 2–5. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2017.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. What is metaphysics? In McNeil, W, editor. Pathmarks, pp. 82–96. New York: Cambridge University Press; 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heidegger, M. Being and Time. Oxford: Blackwell; 1962.Google Scholar
Redfield Jamison, K. Touched with Fire. New York: Free Press; 1996.Google Scholar
Gombrich, C. An outline of Alan Wilson’s philosophy of knowledge, with special attention given to the importance of interdisciplinarity and its role in undergraduate education. Interdiscipl Sci Rev. 2019;44(3):342–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, R. The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe. Chicago: Chicago University Press; 2002.Google Scholar
Owen, GS, Freyenhagen, F, Richardson, G, Hotopf, M. Mental capacity and decisional autonomy: An interdisciplinary challenge. Inquiry. 2009;52(1):79–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Mental Capacity
  • Gareth S. Owen, King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • Book: Psychiatry and Human Nature
  • Online publication: 03 May 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009212526.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Mental Capacity
  • Gareth S. Owen, King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • Book: Psychiatry and Human Nature
  • Online publication: 03 May 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009212526.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mental Capacity
  • Gareth S. Owen, King's College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
  • Book: Psychiatry and Human Nature
  • Online publication: 03 May 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009212526.010
Available formats
×