The Substituted Judgment Approach: Its Difficulties and Paradoxes in Mental Health Settings

Extract

Circe directed Ulysses to fill the ears of his seamen with wax, so that they should not hear the strain [of the Sirens]; and to cause himself to be bound to the mast, and his people to he strictly enjoined, whatever be might say or do, by no means to release him till they should have passed the Sirens’ island. His men obeyed… . At the sound of the Sirens Ulysses struggled to get loose, and by cries and signs to his people begged to be released; but they, obedient to his previous orders, sprang forward and bound him still faster. They held on their course, and the music grew fainter till it ceased to be heard, when with joy, Ulysses gave his companions the signal to unseal their ears, and they relieved him from his bonds.