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When the illness speaks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2023

Norman R. Greenberg Open the ORCID record for Norman R. Greenberg [Opens in a new window]
Norman R. Greenberg*
Affiliation:
Resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York, USA. He received his BA in chemistry at Princeton University. He then received his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and investigated similarities among behavioural addictions in adolescents, under the guidance of Dr Marc N. Potenza.
*
Correspondence Norman R. Greenberg. Email: [email protected]
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Summary

The nature of culpability and agency in patients with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses is complex. In this article, a psychiatry resident (specialty trainee in psychiatry) reflects on a clinical encounter in medical school to demonstrate some of the benefits (including the removal of stigma) and dangers (including the threat to patients’ agency) of using the medical model to conceptualise psychiatric illness.

Keywords

Philosophyethicseducation and trainingstigma and discriminationcarers
Type
Clinical Reflection
Information
BJPsych Advances , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 2024 , pp. 164 - 165
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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References

Ayob, G (2016) Agency in the absence of reason-responsiveness: the case of dispositional impulsivity in personality disorders. Philosophy Psychiatry & Psychology, 23: 61–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Pickard, H (2011) Responsibility without blame: empathy and the effective treatment of personality disorder. Philosophy Psychiatry & Psychology, 18: 209–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Szalai, J (2016) Agency and mental states in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Philosophy Psychiatry & Psychology, 23: 47–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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