In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychological terms. This week’s term is autonomy.
While autonomy falls more under the umbrella of philosophy than psychology, it also has significant implications for mental health care.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant identified several key elements of autonomy, including both the right and the capacity to make one’s own decisions independently, after personal reflection, and without interference. He believed that autonomy is necessary for a meaningful life. So what are we supposed to do when our autonomy is taken away?
Autonomy in medicine
In the field of medicine, informed consent is based upon the principle of autonomy, which runs counter to a paternalistic, doctor-knows-best kind of approach. Complications can arise when a person’s capacity for autonomous decision-making is limited in some way. Other ethical principles may come into conflict with autonomy, such as beneficence (do good) or non-maleficence (do no harm). An article in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry describes “supported autonomy”, which comes from the belief that “to support autonomy in the long term, it may be necessary to compromise autonomy in the short term.”
The Oxford Handbook of Psychiatric Ethics makes this interesting statement:
The lack of a neat, necessary connection between irrationality and mental disorder calls into question the assumed, straightforward, link between psychiatric diagnosis and decision-making abilities.
It adds that some jurisdictions take the view that mental illness impairs insight, autonomous control, and rationality, and as a result, the presence of a diagnosis “eliminates the need to assess the person’s decision-making ability”. Other areas use a mental capacity approach that requires a separate functional assessment rather than the diagnosis alone to evaluate the individual’s capacity to make decisions.
Implications for mental illness
Autonomy is popular for government and health care organizations to talk about, but how well does this translate into reality? The Australian Department of Health has a non-binding National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services, and it describes “promoting autonomy and self-determination” as an element of recovery-oriented services. It lays out what this might look like in practice, but as a non-binding document, it’s really just a suggestion.
Ireland’s Health Information and Quality Authority has a guidance document for supporting people’s autonomy; again, this is non-binding. It rather euphemistically states that there are a “number of factors potentially affect the extent to which a person’s individual choices can be facilitated”.
My own experience
I’ve had three involuntary hospitalizations, and I really struggled with the loss of autonomy. The power imbalance was huge. While I didn’t necessarily have a problem with the medications or the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments that were ordered, having the choice of whether or not to be in hospital taken away from me was devastating.
I’ve always been a very independent person. It drove me crazy (crazier?) that these doctors, whose competence I had serious concerns about, were supposedly in a better position than I was to make decisions about what happened to me. The powerlessness brought out some very primitive behavioural responses, and I’ve yelled at doctors when they tried to exercise their power and suppress my own.
From my experience working as a mental health nurse, I know there are times when hospitalization is absolutely necessary to protect someone. However, I believe that when an individual is being treated involuntarily, the treatment team should be bending over backwards to allow the patient to exercise as much autonomy as possible within the confines of what needs to be done to keep them safe. In reality, that is seldom, if ever, the case. Somehow, we need to find a way to convey to those who are not afflicted with mental illness how soul-destroying it can be to have one’s autonomy stripped away.
Autonomy is not just lost because of others, though. The illness itself erodes the ability to freely make choices and then enact those choices. While this effect is perhaps more pervasive in my life, it’s still easier to wrap my head around than externally imposed limitations on the ability to make my own decisions.
Have you experienced a loss of autonomy related to your mental health condition? How have you dealt with it?
References
- Australian Government Department of Health: A National Framework for Recovery-Oriented Mental Health Services
- Craigie, J., & Bortolotti, L. (2014). Rationality, diagnosis, and patient autonomy in psychiatry. In The Oxford Handbook of Psychiatric Ethics, volume 1.
- Health Information and Quality Authority
- Neilson, G., & Chaimowitz, G. (2015). Informed consent to treatment in psychiatry. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(4), 1-11.
- Wikipedia: Autonomy
The post Cell Phones on Psych Wards—Yea or Nay? is the hub for all psychiatric hospitalization-related content on Mental Health @ Home.
The Psychology Corner has an overview of terms covered in the What Is… series, along with a collection of scientifically validated psychological tests.
Ashley L. Peterson
BScPharm BSN MPN
Ashley is a former mental health nurse and pharmacist and the author of four books.