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Involuntary Commitment as a Psychiatric Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

Virginia Aldigé Hiday
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University

Extract

In the process of involuntary commitment,1 the state makes available its coercive power for use as a psychiatric technology. This application of the state's power is based on the idea that mental illness can make a person not only sick but also unaware of the illness, and dangerous or unable to care for his/her basic needs; thus, coercion may have to be used to secure the mentally ill person's and/or the public's safety, and to give treatment until the illness abates.

Type
Special Section: The Assessment of Psychiatry
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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