ABSTRACT
Although relatively young, the institution of ‘modern psychiatry’ has changed direction several times: assuming new identities; of necessity, shedding the skin of its last incarnation. What has remained constant is the assumption that psychiatry – and its contemporary incarnation, mental health – provides ‘care’ and ‘treatment’ for those who need it; even if they do not actually want it. Long seen as something soft and supportive, care is usually delivered by nurses or other relatively low-ranking carers. By contrast, treatment is assumed to be more sophisticated and scientific, if not daring and heroic, offered by doctors and other expert ‘therapists’.
