Psychopathology and Law

The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803157.013.81 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 858-871

Author(s):

Gareth S. Owen

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Brain Injury ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Epidemiological Methods ◽

Methodological Pluralism ◽

Short Introduction ◽

Frontal Brain ◽

Decision Making Capacity ◽

Valid Consent ◽

The Relationship

In this chapter, the relationship between psychopathology and law is examined by focusing on decision-making capacity (or competence). Jaspers’s methodological pluralism and an approach to psychopathology drawing upon phenomenology as a philosophical, qualitative discipline inform the interdisciplinary approach taken in the chapter. Starting with a short introduction to the legal components of valid consent, it then focuses on decision-making capacity (DMC) in the context of frontal brain injury, schizophrenia, and depression. DMC is examined using clinical epidemiological methods (in Jaspers’s mode of explanation) and using clinical phenomenological methods (Jaspers’s mode of understanding). It is argued that this interdisciplinary approach can further knowledge of the relevant decision-making abilities and inabilities and put us in a better position to implement strategies for DMC assessment in practice.

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Autonomy, Rationality, and Contemporary Bioethics

10.1093/oso/9780198858584.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jonathan Pugh

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Informed Consent ◽

Personal Autonomy ◽

Rational Beliefs ◽

Philosophical Work ◽

Decision Making Capacity ◽

Important Relationship ◽

Legal Judgments ◽

The Relationship ◽

New Framework

Personal autonomy is often lauded as a key value in contemporary Western bioethics, and the claim that there is an important relationship between autonomy and rationality is often treated as an uncontroversial claim in this sphere. Yet, there is also considerable disagreement about how we should cash out the relationship between rationality and autonomy. In particular, it is unclear whether a rationalist view of autonomy can be compatible with legal judgments that enshrine a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment, regardless of whether ‘… the reasons for making the choice are rational, irrational, unknown or even non-existent’. This book brings recent philosophical work on the nature of rationality to bear on the question of how we should understand autonomy in contemporary bioethics. In doing so, the author develops a new framework for thinking about the concept, one that is grounded in an understanding of the different roles that rational beliefs and rational desires have to play in personal autonomy. Furthermore, the account outlined here allows for a deeper understanding of different forms of controlling influence, and the relationship between our freedom to act, and our capacity to decide autonomously. The author contrasts his rationalist account with other prominent accounts of autonomy in bioethics, and outlines the revisionary implications it has for various practical questions in bioethics in which autonomy is a salient concern, including questions about the nature of informed consent and decision-making capacity.

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Command Decisions

Social Science History ◽

10.1017/s014555320001141x ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 34 (4) ◽

pp. 499-522

Author(s):

Scott Martin

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Utility Function ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Expected Utility ◽

Interdisciplinary Approach ◽

Socioeconomic Class ◽

The Relationship ◽

Insight Into ◽

Conquest Of Mexico

The interaction of Spanish and indigenous peoples during the conquest of Mexico yielded a wide variety of actions and decisions. Native groups sometimes battled the Spanish but in other instances cooperated. The Spaniards often attacked when facing overwhelming odds but in other situations retreated with meager gains. Insight into those decisions and actions is gained by looking at human wants and preferences. The Friedman-Savage utility function is applied to specific important events of the conquest of Mexico to clarify the decision making of the participants. An interdisciplinary approach is employed in constructing the expected utility of wealth model, where the maximization of the expected utility of wealth and movement between socioeconomic classes is critically analyzed. Evidence from the Juan de Grijalva expedition, interactions with coastal villages, Hernán Cortés's approach to Tenochtitlan, and the Tlaxcalan decision to ally with the Spaniards are used to clearly illustrate the relationship between the utility of wealth and decision making. Looking through the lens of the Friedman-Savage utility function at events up to Cortés's meeting with Moteucçoma, it is clear that the utility of wealth and the unprecedented opportunities to move to a new socioeconomic class were strong factors in the decision making of the participants.

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