Abstract
Dr. Thomas Szasz's recent proposal to legally recognize the concept of a “psychiatric will” in which individuals might exert control over future attempts to administer involuntary psychiatric treatment to them is defended as a rational means of satisfying both the supporters and opponents of involuntary psychiatry. Criticisms of the “psychiatric will” are analyzed and rejected as resting on misinterpretations of the proposal and its potential legality, and are seen instead to be further arguments in defense of the appropriateness of the social control function as well as the medical model for psychiatry.
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