ABSTRACT
Changes to the patient and to society are both possible. Perhaps there have been societies in which experiences of hallucination and delusion have seemed to be positively conducive to flourishing, on account of being regarded as qualifications for the high-status role of shaman. Opponents of psychiatry have often drawn attention to the possibility of such societies, in order to expose the fact that there are alternatives to society’s treatment of these conditions as disorderly. Describing psychiatric interventions in that way reveals some of the reasons why the practice of psychiatry raises moral issues that go beyond the usual realm of medical ethics. Psychiatrists were depicted as humorless administrators of tranquilizers, electroconvulsive therapy, and worse. Psychiatry can play a role in bringing about changes of both sorts. It can help families, schools, and workplaces to become places in which human flourishing is more easily achieved, and in which it is achievable by a more diverse group of people.
