ABSTRACT
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the paradigmatic psychiatric disorder after psychological trauma. Although formally introduced to the official psychiatric nomenclature only relatively recently, it is frequently diagnosed in clinical practice, and it has received a good deal of research attention. This chapter outlines a number of the conceptual and ethical issues that arise in relation to the diagnosis, prophylaxis, and treatment of PTSD. It turns out that in many cases, early theoretical views of PTSD, its causes and its treatment, have been overturned by subsequent empirical data. Thus, in order to address the conceptual and ethical issues regarding PTSD, a naturalistic philosophical approach emphasizing empirical findings about the brain-mind is useful [6, 7].
