Psychiatric ethics

Abstract

Mrs. J, a 22-year-old secretary, began to exhibit restlessness, perplexity, and remoteness from her husband, Mr. K, following the birth of her first baby 10 weeks earlier. A psychiatrist was summoned after she had visited several neighbors without obvious purpose. He found a reticent, detached woman complaining that, “They have been out to get me from the beginning,” and alluding to “world famine and starving children.” Mental status examination revealed vague, paranoid thinking but firm denial of suicidal and homicidal impulses; she was not obviously delirious. Mrs. J resisted the psychiatrist's recommendation that she be admitted to the local psychiatric hospital. Mr. K supported her in th..