title: In loco parentis: the child model of psychiatry, a critique.
abstract: I have attempted to show that much of psychiatric treatment now and in the last two centuries has been conceptualized and practiced along the lines of a child model. In my discussion of what I consider the inappropriate use of this model I have suggested that it obscures certain fundamental legal, moral and ethical questions involved in the practice of psychiatry. Because psychiatry is still a relatively young science, and still very much involved in the process of determining its relation to the people it seeks to serve, we must be ever alert to the consequences, intended or unintended, of using a particular model. An we must do this in the contex of our professional and cultural history.
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002961:Civil Rights; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005060:Europe; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006760:Hospitalization; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011570:Psychiatry; D014481:United States