Full Description
This thought-provoking volume is based on papers given by practising and academic lawyers, judges, psychiatrists, forensic experts and sociologists to a recent conference in Cambridge. The contributors consider possible approaches towards the resolution of the main dilemmas that face psychiatry, society and the law, and towards healing the rifts that have developed between the different professions concerned with the mentally ill. They also consider the best means of promoting more humane, successful and socially efficient services.
Contents
1. The historical background: the past 25 years since the Mental Health Act of 1959 Martin Roth; 2. The social and medical consequences of recent legal reforms of mental health law in the USA Alan A. Stone; 3. The recent Mental Health Act in the United Kingdom Robert Bluglass; 4. Medical and social consequences of the Italian Psychiatric Care Act of 1978 P. Sarteschi, G. B. Cassano, M. Mauri and A. Petracca; 5. Lessons for the future drawn from United States legislation and experience Robert J. Cambell; 6. Recent developments in relation to mental health and the law in the Federal Republic of Germany H. Helmchen; 7. Psychopathy and dangerousness William H. Reid; 8. Dangerousness in social perspective Jean Floud; 9. Psychiatric explanations as excuses Nigel Walker; 10. Detention of patients: administrative problems facing Mental Health Review Tribunals Sir John Wood; 11. Developments in forensic psychiatry services in the National Health Service John R. Hamilton; 12. The role of psychiatry in prisons and 'the right to punishment John Gunn; 13. Human rights in mental health Larry Gostin; 14. Changes ion mental health legislation as indicators of changing values and policies Margaret A. Somerville; 15. The Danish experience: one model of psychiatric testimony to courts of law Villars Lunn; 16. A postscript on the discussions at the Cambridge Conference on Society, Psychiatry and the Law Martin Roth and Robert Bluglass.
