Ethical Conflicts in Psychiatry: The Soviet Union Vs. the U.S

Dr. Eth's Introduction: From the selection ofa research priority to the choice of a treatment modality, mental health professionals are continuously making value judgments. However scientific clinicians have become, their decisions inevitably reflect a personal sense of right and wrong, good and bad. In addition, each therapist is embedded in a particular national system deeply committed to its own moral agenda. In this issue's ethics column, Dr. Paul Chodoff, an internationally distinguished ethics commentator, analyzes how the political and moral environments of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. influence mental health practices in those countries.