[Respect for the patient in the face of medical progress].

Abstract

The psychological aspects of medical ethics are described and analysed in terms of the doctor-patient relationship. Analysing the patient's needs, the doctor ceases to regard him as an "object" for his diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and makes him the "subject"; this implies respect for his person and his rights. From this psychological and ethical perspective, questions of patient information, professional secrecy, therapy transfer and the doctor's authority are discussed. Psychiatry poses specific problems both in practice (admission of patients to hospital although their illness prevents them from giving their consent) and in its theory (is mental illness real?). Ethical problems force the practitioner to reconsider his concept of man and his options in respect of freedom.