Issues about care and the ethics of care in psychiatry

The debate about care and its different forms has developed a lot in social sciences and in moral philosophy, since Carol Gilligan, arguing in a feminist perspective against the prejudices of moral development psychology, has defined an "ethics of care" and claimed that it should be recognized as of the same value as the dominant ethics (Kantian or utilitarian). Following this claim, a variety of researches have been carried out concerning the activity of caring that goes beyond the field of medical practice. However, in the medical field, in which "care" has to be distinguished from "cure," the development of a theory of care has a strong impact on the conception of treatment (of its organization, its assessment, and the way it is taught). We will focus particularly on what is implied in psychiatry by such a characterization of care.