{"id":415482,"date":"2025-09-11T09:52:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/415482\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T09:52:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:52:23","slug":"the-paradox-of-rights-in-mental-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/415482\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paradox of Rights in Mental Health Care"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In a new article<\/a> in Social Science & Medicine, legal scholar Emmanuelle Bernheim<\/a> argues that the language of rights, far from dismantling coercion in psychiatry, often reinforces it.<\/p>\n

Bernheim, a law professor and Canada Research Chair in Mental Health and Access to Justice at the University of Ottawa, traces how mental health legislation, court rulings, and international treaties have turned rights into a framework that both legitimizes and expands coercive practices.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe development of mental health legislation has not altered the historical criteria for coercive psychiatric practices,\u201d Bernheim writes. Instead, it has \u201cformalized the link between mental health and risk or incapacity, with rights providing the framework for coercion and maintaining the status quo.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Drawing on historical records, case law, and existing empirical research, Bernheim shows that the promise of rights has not reduced psychiatric coercion. Instead, rights provide the very terms through which coercion is justified, acting as both the framework and rationale for forced treatment, while also obstructing the collective mobilization needed to abolish it.<\/p>\n

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\n Previous articleWhen Validation Becomes Avoidance: The Hidden Costs of Comfort in Modern Therapy<\/a>Next articleScience Under Pressure, Humanity at Stake: An Interview with John Ioannidis<\/a> \"Justin<\/a><\/p>\n

MIA Research News Editor:\u00a0Justin M. Karter is the lead research news editor for Mad in America. He completed his doctorate in Counseling Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He also holds graduate degrees in both Journalism and Community Psychology from Point Park University. He brings a particular interest in examining and decoding cultural narratives of mental health and reimagining the institutions built on these assumptions.<\/p>\n


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