ABSTRACT
The key to what is permitted in medical practice is the degree of rationality of the patient. This notion is philosophically and psychoanalytically complex. As an instrumental function of human beings, reason is regarded in the contemporary world as the underlying factor in the development of science and in the enormous explosion in the Western standard of living. Rationality and its role in enquiry and decision-making is, therefore, a fundamental principle of great value upon which our culture depends. The problem that C. Culver and B. Gert found with rationality: "holding true beliefs" and "maximizing the satisfaction of one's desires"–and argue that both are flawed. Freud was concerned that the states of mind of the patient during analysis could be overwhelmed by emotional forces, unblocking feeling states and cultivating powerful transferences, and he believed that these could lead to impulsive and irrational decisions that the patient would later regret.
