Ethics, Culture, and Psychiatry

Ahmed Okasha is Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association and President-Elect of the WPA. He is also Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Mental Health in the Institute of Psychiatry at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. Julio Arboleda-Fl��rez is a Member of the Ethics Committee of the World Psychiatric Association and Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Norman Sartorius is Past President of the World Psychiatric Association and Professor of Psychiatry at the Hospitaux Universitaires de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland.

[T]his is a book that will be food for thought as international ethics in psychiatric practice is debated in the future. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 62:8 The editors have surely taken on a daunting task, and they have succeeded. The volume proffers a culturally panoramic view of ethics and psychiatry. It should satisfy readers aspiring to basic knowledge of the ethical practices of psychiatry, particularly from a transcultural perspective. And indeed, the volume is a boon to readers interested in the thorny question of whether, and if so to what degree, issues relating to ethics and psychiatry may transcend not-inconsiderable cultural chasms... I recommend the volume heartily to all readers genuinely interested in weaving ethical and cultural strands within psychiatric practice. Morton D. Sosland, M.D., Psychosomatics