Book review

Abstract

Many books on biomedical ethics in general and psychiatric ethics in particular focus on basic ethical principles: non-malefi cience, autonomy and justice. In psychiatry there is also an extensive focus on rules related to maintaining boundaries, confi dentiality and the duty to warn. Th e Virtuous Psychiatrist: Character Ethics in Psychiatric Practice written by both a philosopher and a clinician provides a fresh perspective on psychiatric bioethics by focusing on character rather than on principles or rules. Th e authors argue that the psychiatric care provided to patients with severe mental disorders is an emotionally exacting practice-it makes distinctive moral demands on the character of the professional psychiatric practitioner. Care for the severely mentally ill, the most vulnerable population within our society, calls for special character traits and greater virtue than other medical practice settings. Th e authors draw heavily on Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, which construes professional ethics in moral terms, and argue that virtues or character must be the cornerstone of psychiatric bioethics, from which rules and principles are ultimately derived.