The ethical crisis in psychiatry: Consequences for a comprehensive diagnosis and therapeutic practice

Whereas antipsychiatry left the medical concept of disease and medical inst itutions intact at the turn of the century, this sector was fiercely called into question in the subsequent reform efforts. The disclosure that an arg umentation in terms of pure, exact science was questionable encouraged thes e reform efforts and cast doubt on the objectivism dominant at that time, H owever, in the clinical domain, it also led to a profound crisis of legitim ation and thus to a crisis in psychiatry's ethical self-conception. The abs ence of an integrative perspective comprising clinical theory and practice became obvious. In the future, the basic anthropological preconditions invo lved in a given clinical situation may serve as a guideline.