Varieties of deception and distrust: moral dilemmas in the ethnography of psychiatry

Abstract

This article considers the ethical guidelines concerning autonomy, negotiated consent and transparency in relation to an ethnography of psychiatry. It suggests that the complexities and unequal power distribution of the psychiatric consultation make these guidelines difficult to apply. Rather an attempt is made to develop an ethics of patient acknowledgement even where this presents ethical misgivings vis-à-vis psychiatrists. I argue for the importance of ethnography rather than the instantiation of abstract principles to the development of an ethical perspective.