Abstract

This book is the result of a long-standing clinical and educational cooperation between a medical psychologist (Bergsma) and a medical ethicist/philosopher (Thomasma). It is thoroughly interdisciplinary in its examination of the difficulties of honoring the patient's and the physician's autonomy, especially in light of the changes in health care worldwide today. Although autonomy has become the primary standard of bioethics, little has been done to link it to the ways people actually behave, nor to its roots in the healing relationship. Combining as it does the disciplines of psychology and philosophy, this book is a step in that direction.