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Rights Within The Therapeutic Relationship, Patricia King

Journal of Law and Health

My thesis is that the failure of these rights to be implemented in any meaningful way for persons with mental illness is the result of a narrow image of rights which emphasizes the individual, valuing autonomy independent of care, and sacrifices relationship and the connection to the community. By conceiving of rights in such a way, we strengthen the individual but do not address the reality of the context or relationship within which persons with mental illness will actualize these rights. This failure to recognize and account for the disequilibrium within therapeutic relationships and the necessity of caring within such …